Summer Breeze
by Raiden Miosaki
Summary: Karkat Vantas, a hopeless romantic, is sick of standing in the background as his friends fall in love. And he's MORE than sick of giving out romance tips, those things don't grow on trees, ya know! But what happens when the new girl in school peeks his interest? Is this sudden romance for better or for worse?
1. Introduction

**A/N: Aaaand, I'm finally back! My summer has been freaking ****_busy. _****I've been getting ready for comic con, I'm cosplaying Jade Harley~ OwO And hanging out with my best friend as much as possible.  
Hello~  
Some of you may know me from All Those Broken Memories. My previous fanfiction, which was a Hetalia FrUk, story. To all of you who is a fan of my previous work, but ****_isn't _****into Homestuck, I apologize. I'm not abandoning Hetalia, I just decided to try my hand in Homestuck fanfiction, I have wanted to for a long time now.  
A few things need to me recognized here, in my old stories, I've censored some swear words with "*", but I decided I wasn't going to do that, this time around. Since Karkat is the main character, there is bound to be a LOT of swearing, and I decided the "*" would be too much.  
I don't agree with swearing, myself, and would usually censor, but, this is just how it's going to be. As another note, this is all Humanstuck!Highschool AU.  
I'm really happy to be writing again! So if you're a fan of my previous work, thanks for checking this out, and if you're new to my writing, than welcome aboard~ OwO I hope you enjoy this, as I'm going to work really hard on it! That is all for now~ happy reading, and if you took the time to read this long author's note, thank you for THAT, as well. ^^;;**

Romcoms make love stories look like a fucking walk in the park. Take it from a movie enthusiast not to mention, hopeless romantic.  
In 7th grade, I had my first girlfriend, Terezi Pyrope, who is still my friend to this day. We never ended up being serious, and we broke up over the summer before 8th grade. And I wondered silently to myself, why my relationship wasn't like the ones I saw in movies.

I tried to use the excuse that maybe I was just too young for a love story like in the movies, maybe 13 years old had been too young to start?  
But there I was, in 8th grade, and I looked everywhere, and all I saw was romance. Taunting, repulsive, romance.

Even with my two best friends from Elementary school, Gamzee and Sollux.  
Sollux had been best friends with Aradia since 6th grade, and had recently started dating, and oh my god, they were so fucking perfect that it hurt.

Gamzee had a crush on Tavros, a timid boy in a wheel chair, with a punk-rock look to him.  
And he constantly went on and on about love at first sight, bullshit, and how he felt like he was in one of my "motherfuckin love stories I never shut up about".

And _that _pompous load of fuck drove me through the roof. I felt like I should have felt happy for the two of them, but it only drove me insane.

It didn't seem fair to me that my two best friends got to live real-life love stories, while I just sat in class, being, well, me… that loud-mouthed obnoxious kid in school that no one really understood.

It was a seemingly never ending wretched clusterfuck of stupidity, and I almost wanted to shut them all out, not listen to their constant batshit ramblings about love.

Gamzee never shut up, and just _watching _Sollux and Aradia pissed me off.

The next year, the three of us entered highschool.  
I thought to myself "this is fucking it, _so _many love stories take place freshmen year."  
But I was kidding myself with that one.

Everything just seemed like a total repeat of the last year.  
Gamzee _still _liked Tavros, but like the feculent ugly shitrod he was, he never confessed.

Aradia and Sollux were _still _the perfect couple.

I felt like I was in a continuous time loop where everyone got what they wanted except me.

I almost considered asking Terezi out once more, trying again with her, it had been _years _since the two of us had that fling from 7th grade.  
But the more I thought of it, the more I realized, it would all just repeat like everything else. Terezi and I would go out for awhile, and then we'd eventually decide we were just better as friends.

I didn't wanna do that to myself _again. _

Are you getting bored with this drawn out introduction of my middleschool and highschool years?  
Well, too bad, just shut the fuck up and listen good.  
This is where things started to go bad.

Sophomore year.  
I'd completely lost hope of anything ever happening to me, I tried to get the thought of romance out of my head, assuming this would all be a repeat of the last two previous years.

But no, this is where all the perfect romance surrounding me went down the drain.

Gamzee _finally _confessed to Tavros, only to be rejected, because he was dating one of the most popular girls in the school, Vriska.

Gamzee was crushed, and tried to give up on Tavros for awhile.

And Sollux and Aradia's relationship shattered, for details I'll go into later.

Lets just say it was a shitty year for all _three _of us.  
Gamzee was crushed.  
Sollux was _unbelievably_ crushed.

And there I was, having to shut my mouth, and put my opinions aside, to comfort my friends. Just like I always did.  
In a way it _was _a repeat of the last two years.  
Only it was a dramatized version, like a bad fanfiction, where they take a perfectly happy scenario and they crush into a million pieces _just _to torture the characters.

That's how I felt about it.

Maybe things _were _different. But things felt the same to me.  
I felt the same as I did for the past two years. I felt like my opinion didn't matter, I felt like I'd just have to keep my mouth shut for the sake of my two friends, and _I _had to be the strong one, _again. _

As the self-proclaimed leader of our trio, it was only fucking fair, I guess.

Back on the subject of romcoms.  
I _loved _them.  
But I also kind of fucking hated them, for their happy out-look on love, and the way they taught me to view highschool.  
So many expectations were unfulfilled.

Things were starting to calm down, Gamzee was back to his crush on Tavros, and Sollux _finally _started to drag his sorry ass out of the slump he was in.

This all happened Junior year, things had piped down a little bit, and the for the first time ever, the three of us were an actual _trio. _No girlfriends, or any of that shit, just the three of us.

Junior year, this also just so happened to be the year where things started to turn to me.  
Karma _finally _fucking decided it was my turn for something to happen.

This was the year I finally stopped being a background character and became the main protagonist.  
Whether this was for good or for worse, no one fucking knew.

Because even you, even if you're a novice in the genre of romance, even _you _should know, not all love stories have a happy ending.


	2. The New Girl

"Jethus KK, what the fuck are you reading?" Sollux laughed a little, his lisp very present as he said the word "Jesus".  
Without saying much of anything else, he tugged my novel out of my hands.

"Oh my god, fuck you." I groaned, glaring at him.

"Can't a guy have a moment a quiet before the teacher comes into class, without his douche-prick of a friend snatching up his reading material?"

Sollux laughed again, as he scanned the words on the page. "You call _thith _load of thit reading materiel?" He asked.

I gave him a glare, before he laughed, and handed it back to me. Sollux was used to my taste in books and movies, but it didn't stop him from making fun of it.

I'd lost my inspiration for reading after that interruption, so with a sigh, I closed the book, and scanned the room.

I often liked to envision myself as the main protagonist in some sort of novel, or movie. And with the heinously different classmates I had, it wasn't hard to do. They seemed close enough to dumb, pretentious, fictional characters.

There was Eridan, who sat three seats in front of me, up in the front row with Sollux. He had an accent, but no one quite knew where he was from, since he never told anyone, and his dumb accent wasn't the feature that most drew a clusterfuck of people towards him.  
It may have been the fact that he was a complete and utter condescending asshat.

Some people liked him, some people hated him. But _most _hated him.

There was Terezi, the only blind girl in the school, not to mention my ex girlfriend. She'd risen in popularity over the past few years, not only because she was close friends with Vriska, one of the most popular girls in the school, but because she was so over the top, and lively. She had refused to go to a school for the blind after she lost her sight, she continued to go to school with everyone else, despite her disability, and before anyone knew what hit them, she knew her way around the school better than anyone else, despite her blindness. No one would be able guess she was fucking blind at this point in time, unless someone told them.

Then there was of course,Gamzee, my best friend, since fucking_ preschool._ He more than often wore clown makeup to school, and even just around his house, even against his foster parent's protests. A lot of people suspected he was high off something, which I didn't think was wrong.

I just didn't question because I didn't give two shits about it.

And there were others among us. Tavros, Vriska, Feferi, this batshit went on.

There was of course, Sollux, the third member of the little trio Gamzee and I had invented. Sollux was a technology geek, he wore bi-colored sunglasses, and had an obnoxious as fuck lisp, that I teased him about, though he never really seemed to care unless he was in a legitly awful mood.

He was one of those kids who could be popular if he wanted to be, but he chose to stick with Gamzee and I, which set him apart from the "cool" kids.

I snapped myself out of my thoughts, wondering why the fuck I was even bothering to overlook the class like that.

I shrugged, knowing it was more interesting than conversing with Gamzee about his dumbass crush on Tavros.

Bringing myself completely out of my thoughts, I noticed that Gamzee wasn't next to me, and that he'd snuck over, to Tavros, and was casually sitting on top of his desk, as the two of them happily talked, Eridan and Sollux were bickering loudly about the same shit they always fought about, and Terezi and Vriska looked as if they were scheming, which was never good.

And that just left well, me…

I never really fucking minded being alone, as long I _chose _to be alone. I could always pretend I was okay with being abandoned, though, Sollux claimed that when I was lonely, I was painfully obvious.

And if that was so, then why did he ditch me so much for _Ampora_, who he constantly claimed to hate?

I turned back to my book, reminding myself, that looking around at my friends longingly made me look like an incompetent douche.

The teacher finally entered the classroom, and I shut my book once more, this was the first class of the day, and I was readying myself for a vomit-inducing shitbaggery of a day, in school.

I sometimes, no, I _always _wished that school was like it was in movies.  
They only showed the interesting part in movies, where they're sitting in study hall bitching off, or when they're out by their lockers conversing. Theres only a _few _scenes where they're actually sitting in class.

If only we could fucking fast forward like that in the real world.

I was too busy being a self absorbed douche-fuck to notice the class murmuring, I noticed it, delayed.

"Who _is _she?"  
"Isn't it a little late for a transfer student?"  
"Welp… she came out of nowhere."

I looked up to the front of the room, and there, standing by the teacher, was a short girl, at the very least, a head shorter than me, wearing the school uniform, she wore the white blouse, and the optional khaki shorts.  
Her hair looked extremely soft, it was a bit shorter than shoulder length, it went half way down her face, _close _to her shoulders, and was slightly wavy, a light caramel color to it. She had lively green eyes, which was, the very _first _thing I noticed about her.  
The second thing I noticed was that she was wearing a head band, with cat ears attached to them.

I stared for so long, that she noticed me. It took me a moment to notice the two of us were making eye contact.

I felt my face start to turn red, and I looked down at my desk, pretending to look at something else, when I was _actually _fucking cursing myself for being such an obvious feculent douchesack.

I heard her trifle a small giggle, and I wasn't sure if it was over me, or not. I hoped to god that she was laughing at someone, or something else.

"Do you want to introduce yourself, or should I do it for you?" I heard our teacher softly ask the strange new girl, she smiled at him, and shook her head in reply.

"No, I think I'll introduce myself, if that's purrfectly okay?" She answered.

The teacher nodded.

"Hello! My name is Nepeta Leijon, and I'm pawsitivly ecstatic that I was given purrmission to enter your school so late in the semester. I'm looking forward to becoming furriends with mew all!" She smiled, it wasn't a lie, she _was _obviously ecstatic. That big smile on her face was completely genuine, and that was most definitely the loudest most straight forward introduction I'd heard in years.  
Most kids mumbled through their introductions.

"All right, thank you for that… _special _introduction, Miss Leijon." The teacher said.

"You can take the empty seat beside Karkat."

…What? There was no empty seat next to me. That was where Gamzee usually sat.

I looked back, and he was still, sitting over by Tavros, chatting away, but softly.

"_Gamzee Makara." _The teacher spoke sternly.

I knew Gamzee was going to fucking get it, just by the tone of the teacher's voice.

Gamzee turned his head towards him, started.

"Uh, yeah…whassup, brother?" He question.

"You should know very well by now "whassup". I've made the rules very clear, that all students _must _be seated in their desks before I enter the room. Because you refuse to follow the rules, I'm moving you to the back of the room, and this time I _mean _it."

"Shit man, have a motherfucking heart, would ya? I was just playing around with my bro, Tav, we didn't mean ya no harm." He protested slightly.

This wasn't the _first _time Gamzee had been told he was getting moved to the back of the class.

This time, it seemed more serious, seeing as how he'd _just _offered the new girl his seat next to me.

"Mr. Makara, I would be setting a bad example, if I bent the rules for you _again. _If you straighten up, then you can take your place next to Mr. Vantas in the fall when we all come back to school."

I'd defended my primitive fuckwad of a best friend in the past, but it only seemed fair, he had screwed up the rules enough times to get his privileges seriously revoked.

The new girl took her seat next to me, and started getting her supplies out of her bag.

It was late April, and we'd all be getting out of school for the summer around the 20th of June, so this broad would have to work pretty hard, graduate with the rest of us by then.

It was a risky as shit move to jump the system like she had, but I almost sort of admired that.

Gamzee begrudgingly took his new seat in the back of the class, as the teacher started talking, and writing on the board.

She leaned over to me.

"I'm Nepeta, and mew are?" She inquired softly, so that the teacher wouldn't hear her.

There were those insipid cat puns again.  
Those were just for show? This was actually the way she fucking talked?

I sighed a little. "Karkat, Karkat Vantas."

We hesitantly reached forward, and shook hands, making sure our teacher wouldn't catch us.

She smiled at me cutely, turning away, and opening her notebook, starting to take notes, just as the teacher suggested we did.

"Nice to meet mew, Karkitty." She said, an obvious smile still lingering.

She was seemingly proud of her spur of the moment nickname for me.

I turned to my own notebook as well, feeling as if I should take notes as well, but my thoughts were spinning around too quickly for me to concentrate. Even this, small as it was, seemed like a change of pace for me.

Because this… the strange new girl taking your best friend's spot next to you in class?

Wasn't that how a classic love story started?

**A/N: ELLO GUYS~! I'm back with the next chapter~. Thank you to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed so far! Before anyone mentions the absence of the Beta and Alpha kids, lemme just say, they /may/ be brought in later.  
They just didn't seem important to the story at the moment.  
Just another warning, there /will/ be other ships included in this story.  
I'm not going to give away which ones because that will spoil the story, but I'm sure you can maybe guess which ones.  
Please review, and follow if you have the time! And I'll be updating shortly~ Thanks guys! ^^**


	3. Looks From Across The Room

"Oh, best friend~" The ever familiar voice of my childhood friend, Gamzee, pounded against my ear drums, as I felt arms warp around me from behind.

"Get your vacuous stoner hands off me." I said through gritted teeth, as I mocked his easygoing tone.

Like he always did, he ignored my comment, and set his lunch tray down at my table where I'd been sitting alone.

He took his seat beside me, as I looked ahead at the crowded cafeteria.  
I could hear popular girls giggling, bickering between friends, and I could see Dirk and Jake, the only openly gay couple in the school making out in the corner of the room where they _thought _no one could see them.

I turned to Gamzee, who was gazing off longingly to the popular table, where he had a view of Terezi, Dave Strider, ( a hipster asshole with a cool-kid façade,) Feferi, Vriska, and of course, Tavros, who got to sit there because of his connection to Vriska.

Gamzee was of course looking at Tavros.

"Gamzee, this moronic bullshit just has to stop." I informed.

"What bullshit, man? Don't you of all people all up and motherfucking believe in love?"

"_No,_ I don't. " I retorted.

There was a silence between us, and then a smug chuckle.

"You're a liar, bro. Don't think I've forgotten all our conversations in the past, I remember when we were kids, and you were all like, excited about being a knight in shinin' armor, and sweeping a cute girl off her feet, and rescuing the princess, and all that shit."

I groaned quietly to myself.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot those conversations, since your mind is like a bottomless pit of batshit."

I tried to end our conversation there, by turning away, nibbling at the sandwich I'd packed for lunch, but of course there was no such luck, ending a conversation with Gamzee.

"Aw, shit man, insulting a brother's intelligence? That's motherfucking cold."

I scoffed.

"Cold, but valid."

He shrugged, not really disagreeing, as he opened a bottle of faygo.

Sollux made his way to the table, Eridan following behind him, as the two of them effortlessly, argued.

Just when I had thought our trio was going to be back together, just the three of us this year, Eridan came into the picture.

Sollux's long-time rival.  
He was a total asshole, and everyone knew it.

He didn't fall into the popular kid category, but he was _unpopular _either.  
His antics were so obnoxious, and over the top, that everyone knew his name. And that left him with us.

The small group of kids, who weren't cool, but weren't totally overlooked.

We were still known, for different things. Sollux for his hacker skills, Gamzee for his miracle rants, and the fact that he was obviously a stoner, and me for being the only boy in the entire school, maybe in _eternity, _who openly enjoyed romance novels, and romcoms.

Eridan just trailed behind Sollux like a lost puppy, which always left him in _our _group.

Sollux constantly complained to me about how the asshat wouldn't leave him alone, but he never attempted to kick him out of the group.

"Kar…"  
_"Kar, _did you hear, Sol asked you a question, at the very _least _30 fuckin' seconds ago." Eridan startled me out of my train of thoughts with his obnoxious accent.

"Oh." I shook my head in reply.

"No, I didn't, what did you say?" I asked, turning my attention to Sollux.

"What thort of inthipid bullthit has got _you _down, KK?" He demanded.  
"I mean, that wathn't my original question, but theriouthly, you keep zoning out, lately."

I shook my head, in case he never noticed, I'd _always _been slightly day dreamy.  
It was a habit of mine to zone out, a hobby, even.

"There is no "inthipid bullthit" going on with me, Sollux." I said, mocking his lisp.

My impersonation made Eridan laugh, which caused Sollux to shoot him a glare, before he turned back to me.

"Well, okay…if you thay tho."He sighed, obviously not believing me.

"Tho… you and that cat girl, huh?"

This casual accusation took me by such a surprise, that I almost spit out my drink, I had to force myself to choke it down, which literally caused me to choke, quite loudly, which _then_ caused a lot of the cafeteria crowd to turn to me, with both a hint of annoyance, and worry.

"Oh…w-well then…" Eridan stared at me, his nervous stutter showing slightly.

"Are feelin' all right, Kar?"

"Thut up!" Sollux exclaimed before I could answer.

"KK, never athked for your thympathy, fithbreath!"

"My _cod_, Sol, that lisp of yours makes you seem so fuckin' unintelligent, it's almost adorable."

That led to full onto another full-on argument.

Gamzee blinked, and looked at me, confused.

"What the motherfuck just went down, Karbro?" Gamzee inquired, having missed that entire conversation, only having heard my impulsive choking, and then the argument that took place afterwards.

I shook my head, holding a hand up, meaning to say it was nothing.

Honestly, that douchelick had the fucking _nerve _to ask me about the new girl?  
I'd only met her hours before, in English class.

Sure, we sat together in a few classes, but how the fuck did that make it seem like anything?

God, I guess I had to admit to myself, that she _was _almost kind of cute, and it wasn't like I hadn't thought of it.  
But that was only because it had seemed like a cliché love story opening.

That was just my easily fantasy-induced mind speaking for me.  
I didn't want my active imagination taking me over again, that was what made my first few years of highschool seem so miserable. Unrealistic expectations.

"Sup, Kitkat~?" I heard a voice from behind, which forced me to turn around.

It was Vriska and Terezi.

Terezi had a big grin on her face.  
"That was a great show you put on there, Karkles." She laughed.

"Show? I was fucking _choking,_ Terezi." I informed.

"Ohhhhh, is that supposed to make her feel bad, or something?" Vriska asked.

I rolled my eyes, and turned my back on the two of them, I didn't have time to put up with Vriska's bullshit, I honestly had no fucking clue how Terezi put up with that screaming braindead fucktard, every day of her life.

"Anyway, sorry to get your hopes up, Kitkat—"

"It's _Karkat."_

"…Sorry to get your hopes up, _Kitkat._ But we didn't even come to talk to you, we came to talk to the asshole with the clown makeup." Vriska told me.

Gamzee turned his head slightly to look at them.

"What's up, sis?" He asked.

"Stop messing around with my boyfriend, asswipe." She said, softly, putting her elbow on his shoulder, and leaning on him.

"Look, Clownfish, everyone can see you staring at him, and that needs to stop."

"You can't all up and stop the motherfucking love, Sis." He shrugged.

Vriska scoffed.  
"If it's true looooove~ then why is Tavros with _me, _and not _you?" _

Gamzee's face fell slightly.

"Um…"

"Hey, asshole!" I stood, instantly.

"Why don't you take the bitch-express back to wherever it is you came from?"

"Awww, Karkat is taking a stand for his stoner boyfriend! How cute."

"I'm not standing up for him." I lied.  
"I'm just calling you out for what you are."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"A heinous razzmatazz of go fuck yourself in the ass."

Vriska stared at me for a second, before shaking her head.

"Let's go, Terezi. We've made our point here."

Terezi nodded, and the two of them headed back to their table.

Without another word, I sat back down at the table, and started eating again, but it didn't take Gamzee long to put his arms around me in an attempt to hug me.

As a reflex, I elbowed him in the chest.

"Where did I say to keep your fucking stoner hands?" I inquired.

"To my motherfucking self."

"Exactly."

I started to eat again in silence, with of course the exception of all the kids in the cafeteria, and Sollux and Eridan screaming at each other right across from me.

I looked up, and I caught sight of those green eyes, the same ones I'd met in class this morning.

Nepeta and I had managed to make eye contact again, this time, she was a few tables away, instead of in front of the class.

She nodded at me upon noticing that I was looking back, then after that, she looked down.

But seconds before her facial expression was hidden from my sight, I saw a flash of that cute smile of hers, and her cheeks, turning bright red.

**A/N: Sorry to any of you, who got the first email that said there was an update, earlier. I accidentally posted the unedited version of the chapter, and had to delete to fix it.  
Thank you so much, for all the follows, I have nearly 20 follows already! (Yay). c:  
Just a warning, eventually, I'm going to probably cut down to once-a-week updates, but for now, I'm on a roll.  
I'm trying my very best to keep everyone in character, so I'm sorry if I've screwed up, this is my first attempt at writing a multiple chaptered Homestuck story.  
The stutter thing with Eridan, like when he said "W-well" it's easy to pick up on, but thats there to represent part of his quirk.  
Thank you for reading, and if it's not too much to ask I'd ****_really _****enjoy seeing more reviews out there! Until next time~.**


	4. Rain

I held back a scream, as I sat up abruptly in my bed, eyes flashing open, waking up in a cold sweat.

I panted, every single detail of the nightmare, racing around in my mind. For a moment I believed I was still in the nightmare, until I took a moment to take in my reality. I turned my head to the side, and on the table by my bed, I eyed the clock. It was early. 4:29am to be exact, I looked out the window, and saw that it was mostly still pitch black, with a little bit of light, which tinted the sky, and made it look slightly blue.

I sighed, blinking away the tears that I had only just noticed were brimming my eyes. Being only eleven years old at the time, I did what any terrified kid would do.

All right, I did whatever terrified kid, who was a total _wimp_ would do.  
I climbed out of bed, and tip toed out of my room, sneaking quietly into my older brother's bedroom.

Kankri's room was less hazardous than mine, while my room had toys, and crumbled papers, and whatever the hell else, all over the floor, Kankri's room was spotless, even his desk was spotless.  
His papers all neatly tucked away in folders, and his backpack and jacket were neatly hung on a hook.

I stopped in front of my older brother's twin sized bed, and just stared, afraid that if I came any closer, he'd suddenly be awake, calling me out on my triggering behavior.  
I _very _carefully, climbed up into the bed, freezing every few seconds, as I tried to lay down, making sure Kankri wasn't waking up.

I finally managed to successfully lay down in his bed, beside him, but it was hardly rewarding, since there was hardly any room in the bed.

Now, a brave move on my part, I scooted forward, and cuddled up to him, it was the only way to be somewhat comfortable in his small bed, to get as close as I possibly could.

Which wasn't a problem for me. Being an eleven year old, who'd just woken up from a horrifying nightmare, it comforted me slightly to be close to my older brother. Staying cuddled up to him, I eventually fell back asleep.

Hours later, the sun coming through his windows woke me up, I'd started to forget about my nightmare entirely, in fact, for a moment, I'd forgotten that I'd climbed into my brother bed.

I only remembered, when I opened my eyes, to see none other than Kankri, still laying in bed next to me, staring at me, with a blank expression.

My eyes widened for a moment, and I ended up staring right back to him, in silence, not knowing what I could say to explain why I was there. The two of us just laid there in total silence for almost a whole minute.

Until words that I should have predicated left my brother's mouth.

"…Check your privileges."

At this I started full on shouting at him, out of defense, out of anger, out of embarrassment.

It was a tricky situation trying to explain to your brother why exactly he'd woken up next to you, in his bed.

Kankri, however was used to my shouting, and got up, taking off his white tee shirt he'd been sleeping in, slipping on his usual red sweater.

"Why are you here exactly, Karkat?" He asked casually, over the sound of my shouting.

That silenced me, when he asked, hearing the genuine concern in the back of my brother's voice drew me at blank.

I'd never gotten much affection from our dad, neither of us did, and Kankri wasn't affectionate either, but when I _did _catch the small hint of care in his voice, it always seemed to draw me at blank.

The silence between us lasted a few seconds, before Kankri simply guessed why I was there.

"Nightmares, again?" He inquired.

Nightmares for me wasn't a constant thing, but when I _did _get nightmares, they were horrible, _horrible_ nightmares.

Not the kind you could forget in a matter of hours. Ones that haunted me, continuously.

Kankri knew about the nightmares, I'd been getting them since I was really little.

I hated owning up to it, but I had to give him a reason as to why I was there, and the truth in this case, was just as good of a reason as any.

Sitting there in his bed alone, with him looking me from across the room intently, I hung my head, and finally, just nodded in response to his question.

There was no answer from him for a few seconds, until I felt him wrap his arms around me, softly, climbing back onto the bed, and pulling me closer to him, running his fingers through my hair.

"It's okay."

I eventually nodded in response to his reassurance. While, Kankri wasn't the easiest older brother to put up with, he _did _have his soft moments, when he knew exactly what to say to calm me down, he had his moments of being a really good older brother.

. . . . . . . . . .

My brother was an asshole. A dickmongering moronic bastard. I couldn't stand that disdainful douchebag.

Kankri had been fourteen at the time, when I'd shown up in his bed a terrified mess, but the second he turn eighteen, he applied to several colleges, all of which were _states _away.

He was accepted, and he just fucking _took off. _

I knew that it was because of our father, not because of me, but… what the fuck? He honestly stopped caring about _me _enough to just take off Sure, he _used _to call, but I'd always just yell at him, and eventually, he gave up calling me altogether.

And you know what? I didn't give two shits about it.

Sure, Kankri and I used to be close, seeming as we had a mutual uncaring father, but the second he walked out that door, he was history.

And that left me with absolutely no one to tell me to check my privileges.

Doing the math, Kankri was fucking twenty years old by now, to think I hadn't spoken to him since he was eighteen.

Okay, to be honest, I _did _give two shits about it.

I felt bad about losing contact with my own brother, but then, the second I thought about picking up the phone, I got flashes of the preteen him, holding me in his arms, claiming that we'd always be together, and then a second flash of eighteen year old him walking out the door.

He might as well just said "Fuck you, you pompous asshole" as he walked away, leaving me, because thats how much it hurt, it would have barely added to the pain if he had added an insult.

But he would probably considered that too triggering.

I laid in bed, groaning at the thought of getting up for school.

I almost turned back over.

Maybe I could call in sick?

Maybe I could skip school?

But I heard a crash from downstairs, and that instantly made me throw myself out of bed. My dad… he wasn't home, right? No… he always left early, and he almost _never _missed a day at work.

All of this thinking about Kankri made me think that he possibly came home?

But that wouldn't make any sense, it wasn't even summer break yet, plus he _never _came home for summer break.

Oh my fucking god, now I was panicking.  
I started digging through my closet, and eventually found my old metal bat, back from elementary school, the year I'd picked up baseball for a season, biggest failure of my life, but I _did _still have the bat for some goddamn reason.

I tiptoed down the stairs, peeking around the corner, and I saw a tall figure in the kitchen.

Fuck.  
Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I clenched the bat in my hands tighter, and silently creeped into the kitchen behind the tall figure, who was wearing a black hoodie, the hood pulled over his head.

I held my breath, readying myself to hit the guy, and I started to, but forced myself to stop in midair, when the figure turned around, and I saw that vile clown makeup.

"Oh, hey best friend, what's with the motherfucking bat?"

At that I exploded at him.

"Gamzee what the actual fuck? You scared the living shit out of me, I thought you were a bandit, or some shit like that, you fucking douchewad!"

Gamzee laughed a little, and he put his arm around me, casually.

"It's all cool, bro. You can put the bat down, you're all up and motherfucking safe from harm." He informed.

"Get. Your. Fucking. Hands. Off me." I said, through gritted teeth.

Gamzee took my serious request as light hearted behavior, as he always did. I shrugged, shoving his arm off me, and going down the hall, placing the bat in the hall closet.

Gamzee was at my table, eating dry cereal from a bowl.

I groaned, taking the milk out, and pouring some into his bowl.

"Ah, thanks, best friend."

"Why the fuck are you wearing a hoodie, anyway? It's not cold outside." I told him, as I sat down beside him, pouring cereal for myself.

"Because man, it's raining." He grinned.

"April showers bring May flowers, and flowers bring _motherfucking miracles." _

"…Your stoner is showing." I told him.

"You can't fight the miracles, brother."

"Whatever."

Eventually, I went upstairs to change into my uniform, telling Gamzee not to get into trouble while I was gone. Jesus, Gamzee acted like his foster parents never fed him.  
Always showing up at my house fucking mooching off me.

Gamzee had quite the abusive father as a kid, it fucked him up a little in the head.

He'd convinced himself that his father hit him, and smacked him around because he cared about him, as a result, he still thought he loved his dad.

And as a result from _that, _he absolutely hated his foster parents, he always had, even though they were a perfectly nice couple, who attempted to keep him in a safe environment.

He had three scars on his face, from where his father had cut him, as a little kid.

Upon dealing with the past abuse, and later finding out he wouldn't be allowed to see his father again, until after highschool, which they still recommended that he cut off all contact with him, he eventually turned to drugs.

And became the easy going, happy Gamzee who called me "best friend" and followed be around like the stoner he was.

I slipped on my uniform, tossing my cellphone into the side pocket of my back pack, and lastly grabbed an umbrella, considering the fact Gamzee claimed it was raining.

I took Gamzee's bowl off the table, and loaded it into the dishwasher along with mine.

I didn't open the umbrella inside the house, knowing that Gamzee might freak out over the bad luck, or what the fuck ever.

I shut the door behind the two of us, forcing Gamzee under the umbrella with me, because he was right, it was pouring out there. I locked arms with him, just so he didn't stray out into the rain, because I knew he would.

And with that, we both took off into the rain, readying ourselves for another hell-like day of school.

****

A/N: Ohai, guys~ I wanna thank you, because I'm already so close to having 30 followers, and this is only the 4th chapter! This chapter was just basically so I could show Karkat's relationship with Kankri, and also his relationship with Gamzee, because also needed to be put into an example.  
Thanks for reading, and follow, if you haven't already, and review if you can~ the next chapter will be up shortly! Until then, guys~.


	5. Rumors

My phone vibrated in class, for once I thanked god that my English teacher was hard of hearing.  
A lot of other fucking teachers would have noticed instantly, and whoever the hell was texting me, must have known that.  
I guess their tiny bit of common sense, I appreciated that at the very least.

Making sure no one was watching, I took out my phone, hiding it behind my English book, checking my texts.

_SUP K4RKL3S? _

I groaned, looking at the useless text, peeking back at the short red headed blind girl, who sat a few seats behind me.

She grinned mischievously, as if she knew I was looking at her.  
Terezi was a sort of cute girl, with shoulder length frizzy red hair, and a grin that spelled trouble with a capital fucking T.

_WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, TEREZI? WHAT THE HORSESHITTING JAZZFUCK COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE TEXTING ME ABOUT *DURING* CLASS?_

Terezi laughed quietly at my response, and texted back quickly.

_1 H34RD 4N INT3R3ST1NG RUMOR, TH4TS 4LL. 1 W4NT3D TO S33 1F 1T W4S TRU3._

…What the fuck?  
What sort of dumbass gossip was spouting off about?

_TEREZI, IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE, I'M NOT THE QUEEN OF THE BITCHY GOSSIP CLUB, YOU'D BETTER CONSULT VRISKA ON THAT ONE._

H3H3H3H3, NO, TH3 RUMOR 1S 4BOUT YOU, SO 1 1M4G1N3 ONLY YOU C4N 4NSW3R 1T.

I glanced over at her again, upon noticing Vriska was looking over her shoulder.

_WHAT RUMOR? WHAT THE FUCKBAGGING SHIT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?_

J33Z, K4RK4T. DON'T G3T YOUR P4NT13S 1N 4 TW1ST.

WILL YOU JUST SHUT YOUR CROTCHSTAINED MOUTH AND INFORM ME OF THIS RUMOR YOU SPEAK OF?

WHY TH3 RUMOR 4BOUT YOU 4ND N3P3T4, OF COURS3.

With this information, I shut my phone, slipping it back in my pocket.  
I turned around slightly, and promptly held up my middle finger.

Vriska saw, and shook her head, smiling, whispering in Terezi's ear, informing her of what just happened.

Rolling my eyes, I actually started to pay attention to my text book, that we were all supposed to be reading at the moment.

"Karkitty, wait up!" I was on my way to the cafeteria, hours later, when the voice of Nepeta called after me.

I instantly froze, turning back a little, waiting for her to catch up to me.

She stopped in front of me, straightening her cat ears, which had loosened from her running, she nodded at me, as a greeting.

"I don't mean to pry, or anything, but…is evefurrything all right with you and Terezi? I couldn't help but notice some… unpawsitive glares, and interaction between the two of you during lunch yesterday, and then class again, today… I just don't like to see my furriends fighting."

..Friends.  
We'd only met the day before, and she wanted to already call us friends?

"N-none of your damn business." I retorted, nervously, not meaning to come off so harshly, it's just what happened to slip from my mouth.

She crossed her arms, a frown crossing her face, letting me know it was too late to take back my smartass reply.

"I'm only trying to be friendly with you." She informed, dropping her catpuns out of pure seriousness.

"Yeah, I know…" I said, quietly, mentally slapping myself for being such a jackass.

This was probably exactly why my relationship with Terezi never worked out, and the reason why romance never shot itself my way, because I was a complete and utter kringlefuck.

"I'm sorry, Terezi and I are fine, it's just kind of how we always interact."

That wasn't the whole truth, it hadn't always been like that, Terezi and I used to be close friends, who'd every once and awhile tease each other, but still, all and all, could stand each other for five minutes without lunging at each other's fucking throats.

Her expression softened just a bit.

"Apology accepted."

"Oh, jethus fuck, Gamzee! Don't thneak up on me like that…!" Sollux exclaimed, not far behind us in the hallway.

"Ahaha, sorry bro, it wasn't meant to be startling."

Welp… they were all here anyway.  
Maybe if Nepeta started to get familiar with my friends, she'd start hanging around us, more…?

Oh what the fuck… was I mentally admitting that I honest to god, cared what she did…?

I ushered the two of them over, and they were there within a matter of seconds.

"Thup?" Sollux asked, instantly noticing that Nepeta was with me.

"Have you guys met?" I asked.

"This is Gamzee, the vacuous moronic stoner, and Sollux the asshole poser."

"Aka, the only friendth you have, KK, tho thut the fuck up." Sollux retorted, I could tell he was rolling his eyes, even though they were hidden behind glasses.

"Wonderfurrl to meet you, Gamzee, though, as for Sollux he and I sit together in a few classes… hi Sollux!" She added her greeting at the end of her sentence, waving her hand slightly at him.

"So, are you all up and joining us at our table today, sis?" Gamzee asked, out of nowhere.

"Oh no, I wouldn't want to intrude on mew all, you're a pawsitivly purrfect trio, and I wouldn't want to ruin that." She declined politely.

"Pfft. Pleathe, ED doeth that already, one more perthon won't have any thort of an impact." Sollux protested.

"Well…if you're all okay with it, then sure!" She grinned slightly.

I was glad that Sollux was quick enough to say what I wasn't brave enough to say.  
I barely knew her, but for some reason, whenever I was around her, I felt tongue tied, I said all the wrong things, and I felt nervous.

It was hard to wrap my head around. We all headed to the cafeteria together, Gamzee and went straight to our table, since we always had our lunches from home, while Nepeta and Sollux went for the line, to get the school lunch.

I couldn't help but watch intently, as Nepeta and Sollx chatted away in the line, casually, Sollux chuckled a little at something she said, and it made me incredibly jealous for some reason.

"Hey, Gamzee…" I started, turning to him.

It took him a second to realize I was talking to him.

"Hm? Sup, best friend?" He inquired.

"You don't think Sollux…_likes _Nepeta, do you?"

What the _fuck? _  
Why was I asking him? I barely knew her! Sollux barely knew her, it was a little early to be worrying about who-likes-who.

And yet… the words somehow slipped out.

Gamzee laughed a little, placing a hand on my head.

"Nah, man. Sollux and Eridan totally have it going on, I don't think he's interested in her."

I nodded to his response, only to understand what he had actually said a second later.  
"Eridan and Sollux totally have it going on"?

What the blistering fuckcrumpet?

"You're such a pathetic loser! Grow the fuck up, would you?" Those words echoed throughout the cafeteria, followed with a crash, and a startled yelp.

The sound came from the popular table, I turned my head quickly looking in that direction, to see Tavros had been knocked out of his wheelchair, and now had Vriska towering over him, going off about something.

I let myself turn back to Gamzee, which, as expected, his eyes were locked on the situation, and he did _not _look happy.

"Gamzee… calm down, okay?" I said, softly, grabbing onto his sleeve, lightly.

"I'm sure he's okay."

Obviously someone needed to do something, that wasn't okay on any sort of level, but I sure as fuck didn't want it to be Gamzee, he always got carried away when he was _actually _angry.

I started to get up, myself.  
I wasn't best friends with Tavros or anything, but picking on a kid in a wheelchair, no less, was just _not _fucking okay.

"You let me handle Vriska, okay? You just help Tavros." I told Gamzee, trying to compromise with him, because obviously he wasn't gonna stay back while I marched up there.

He reluctantly nodded, and we both started over to the table.

Before I could even say a fucking _word _to that ugly waste of space, someone cut right in front of me, and started yelling at her.

"Do mew _honestly _believe that was acceptable…?!" Nepeta demanded, loudly.

And suddenly, _everyone _in the cafeteria was looking at us.

"Ohhh, so now the little cat girl is gonna tell me what I can and can't do with _my _boyfriend? I'm just trying to make him stronger." Vriska shook her head, obviously not phased by Nepeta's outburst.

Sollux walked up to the scene, stopping next to me, and watching with just as much awe as I was.

"Look, new girl, I know that this is your second day, so I'll let you off the hook, and let go of that _minor_ outburst."

"Shut the furrick up, Serket." She snapped again.

"I don't know you, or him, or how _you _think things are, but the way I see it, even if your boyfriend _wasn't _a cripple, it would still not be all right to shove him around like that, and yell at him. Frankly, I think you need to seek professional help for your anger issues."

Dropping her cat puns, saying that to her in a sharp tone, a completely serious expression on her face, she was cut off before she was able to say more, cut off by clapping to be exact.

The clapping originated from Jade Harley, followed by her brother John, and then after that, the whole room was suddenly cheering for the new girl.

Vriska looked completely taken aback, not only from Nepeta's statement, but the fact that "her people" were suddenly routing for another side.

By this point, Gamzee already had Tavros back in his chair, and was kneeled down to his size, talking to the other, slightly shaken, boy.

Vriska turned to Terezi for some validation that not _everyone _was against her on this one.

Terezi just laughed a little in reply.

"It looks like you may have to apply some cool ice, Vriska." She said.

"Because you just got _burned." _

Feferi, who was standing with Eridan, couldn't help but giggle quietly at Terezi's statement.

The whole thing slowly died down, and people started returning to their tables.

Leaving Nepeta and I the only ones still standing around.

"Let's go, then..?" She asked.

"Huh?" I shook myself out of my thoughts.

"Oh, uh, yeah, let's go."

She nodded, smiling the slightest bit before taking off back towards the table where Sollux, Eridan, Tavros and Gamzee had headed back to.

So…Nepeta, the new girl, I had started to fall for, wasn't _only_ an over the top, cutesy cat girl, she was, surprisingly, also sort of a badass.

Huh.  
The more you know.

**A/N: OwO Aaaand~! I'm back again. So, I hope you're all happy with this chapter. I have over 30 followers already~! Thank you so much, guys. ^^;;  
Next goal is 50 followers. (Haha, as if. A girl can dream, though.)  
I'm thinking I may skip up soon, to closer to the end of the school year, now that I have the characters and their places in the story established, since the majority of the story is meant to take place in the summer. Hense, the name of the story.  
I have some really good stuff, planned for future chapters.  
Follow, and/or review if you can! Until then, guys~**

Raiden


	6. Nearing Summer

Sollux and Aradia had dated from 7th grade, all the way up to Sophomore year, which had been last year.

Last summer, that had been their last bit of time together, by the time Autumn fucking showed it's face, she was gone, and when I said gone… I meant, she was _fucking gone. _He returned to school without her.

That summer, was the summer that no one could ever forget. The summer that everyone pretended didn't happen.

And it was all tied to one main event that sent it all flying downhill.

To be completely blunt, Sollux's long-time girlfriend, a girl I'd known since the 5th grade… Aradia Megido, _passed away._

I could remember the day perfectly in my head, it'd seemed like a completely normal day, it was a hot summer day, Gamzee was busy going about his own bullshit, and I was home alone, laying sprawled across my bedroom floor on my laptop, scrolling through the usual useless fuck, a fan pointed directly at me, as my only source of cool air.

I was in a horrible mood, mostly because of the heat, I hadn't even bothered to contact Sollux that morning, because I figured he would be in just as a bad mood as me, not willing to leave the house because of the horrible weather.

It was some time around 3:00-ish, when my disdainful cellphone rang, playing some default fuckjam, that startled the living shit out of me.

I groaned, setting my laptop aside, sitting up slightly to answer the phone.

I noticed the caller ID, and it was Sollux calling.  
I wondered, 'what the actual fuck could this douchebag want on a day like this?'

And with a shrug, I answered the call.

"Hello? This had better be fucking good." I answered, sitting up fully, on the floor of my bedroom, sitting cross-legged.

I got nothing but static as a response.

Sollux was either in a really bad cell area, or he was trying to pull some over the top bullshit on me.

"Sollux, what the fuck? You'd better be in a bad cell, because if this is some incompetent poser bullshit right now, I promise you, I'm hanging this fucking phone up."

"KK…?"

_Finally, _a response from that loser. But it didn't sound like he'd understood a word I'd just said, so I assumed that he was just in a really bad cell.

"Hey… how about you call me back for whatever blithering jackassed batshit you're calling me for, once you get into an area where you can actually fucking _hear me?" _

"KK, I'm not entirely thure if you can hear me right now…"

He obviously hadn't heard a word I'd said to him, I just about hung up, assuming he'd call me back once he was in a more suitable spot.

"I…I'm not even thure whath going on at the moment, I… I'm lightheaded, my car, it… flipped over, okay? It jutht happened too fatht."

For a moment, he broke away from the phone, and I heard him go into a fit of coughing, just faintly.

My heart sped up what seemed a one hundred times faster than normal, and I could feel that my eyes had widened themselves out of shock.

I had not expected to get a call from my friend, sounding like he was close to his deathbed at the moment.

"I already called 911…" I heard his voice over the line again.

"I hear thirinth…"

After I got out of my slight state of shock, I stood, walking around the house, trying to get a better connection, even though I _knew _it was his connection that was basically making this a one sided call.

"Oh my god, can you fucking hear me?" I demanded, loudly.

"Are you trying to tell me you crashed your car? You fucking got it _flipped over?_ Sollux, I—fuck. Call me when you get the hospital, fuck, no, I'll be there already, I'm gonna fucking call a cab and get to the hospital as soon as I can, are you getting any of this?"

"AA ithn't talking to me, KK… thes all thilent…her eyeth are thut, I… I can't theem to fucking wake her up…"

"I'm afraid... I can barely move, I… I'm tho dizzy…I can't thee thraight…"

His voice was almost monotone sounding, but I could hear it, in the back of his voice I could hear him choked up, he was most definitely in a state of mental shock.

"Sollux, calm down, everything's going to be okay, all right? Just calm down, and I'll meet you at the hospital, just relax… it's okay."

_It wasn't okay._

…..

Sollux had managed to get a horrible concussion from the crash, and three of his fingers had been crushed, broken, and of course, he had a few cuts, and was bruised up quite a bit.

Even so, considering how bad the accident had been, he should have been dead, he was lucky to be as okay as he was.

I'd gotten to the hospital soon after the ambulances had gotten the two of them there, and I was then subjected to two long hours of waiting, before they let me back to see him.

The words plagued the back of my head, what he'd said about Aradia not talking to him, that her eyes were closed.  
And I'd gotten no word about her from any of the staff.

After seeing the news report about the crash, hearing what they had to say about it, and seeing how bad it was, I had a sick feeling in the back of my mind, that Aradia wasn't going to be okay, I brushed it off as my over active imagination.

But as soon as I was let back to see Sollux, and I saw that shocked, almost terrified look on his face, I knew.  
I just somehow knew, that she was gone.

I could never seem to forget when a few members of the staff entered the room, and gently told us that our friend had passed away, I felt a knot in my throat, not sure how to react.

I had almost hated Aradia over the years, for taking so much of my friend's time, but all in all, she had made him happy, they were the perfect match, and I had been jealous.

I turned slightly to look at Sollux, expecting him to be close to breaking down, but his face was completely straight, not even a hint of tears brimming his eyes.  
He had already known.  
He'd already known before they informed him, that she was dead.

From that point on, Sollux kept himself locked up, Gamzee and I would try to get him to come out of his room, but we'd always get the same monotone response through the door, telling us he was busy, some other time.

We _never _saw him cry over her, and we wondered if he'd turned into some sort of robot.

Until one day, when we came to the door, and his twin, Mituna, answered us.

Mituna had previously been in an accident himself, and as a result, had lost it a little in the head.  
He was the older of the two siblings, but acted much like the younger, he was homeschooled, and Sollux had explained to us, in middle school, that it was because his parents thought he would be picked on for his disabilities.

Mituna told us that he'd gotten into Sollux's room, and found him just curled up, and when he'd gotten a good look at him, his eyes were very much red, definitely because he had been crying.

He told us that Sollux hardly ever let _him _in, that the only times he could get into the room, was if he picked the lock.

Mituna was obviously worried about his brother, while I, was more relieved that he wasn't totally emotionless about the whole thing.

Out of nowhere, near the end of that summer, Sollux called me up, acting like it was completely normal, and he just started pretending like it never happened.

Everytime I, or anyone tried to ask him how he was feeling, or tried to bring up Aradia to him, he just dodged the subject, pretending like he hadn't heard a word they'd said.

And now, almost a year later, he'd seemed as if he'd gone completely back to normal.  
He smiled, and laughed every once in awhile, he fought with Eridan, interacted with Gamzee and I.

Every once in awhile, I'd call Mituna's cell directly, to ask him if Sollux was acting normal at home, and he'd always say he was fine.

The whole thing had died down, for sure, but every once in awhile, the thought would creep into my mind, of how Sollux suddenly, out of nowhere, just sprung back to normal, after that horrible point of his life.

...

That default fuckjam of a ring tone blasted from my pants pocket, reminding me so much of that day, out of nowhere.

Seeing that it was Gamzee, I shut my laptop, knowing this conversation could go on for awhile.

"Yeah?" I casually answered the phone.

"Hey best friend, I was just all up and motherfucking wonderin' if you were planning to go on the annual beginning of summer field trip, like usual?"

The last day of school, since freshmen year, our favorite teacher had the tradition of rounding up the class to take us all on our last "field trip" of the year.

Only, it was basically just a beginning of summer party.

The first year, she'd taken us all to play laser tag.

Last year, six flags, and this year, I was pretty sure she was planning on taking us to the beach.

Even though summer was only just starting, the heat waves were already picking up.

"Yup, I've got the permission slip. That's almost a stupid fucking question." I answered, dully.

"No need to get all up in my case, brother. I was just making sure. I couldn't go without my best fucking friend." He blabbed on.

"You'd be just as much of a brainless dickmongerer if I didn't show, Gamzee." I informed.

"Come on, man. Don't be like that."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." I shrugged.

"See you tomorrow. Good-night."

I shut my phone, laying my laptop on the floor, and then turning onto my side, as I was already laying in my bed.

Time had passed so quickly already.

It was June 7th, two weeks away before school was coming to a close for the summer.

I already had the "beginning of summer field trip" permission slip on my desk, and all the memories were flooding back.

Only this year felt so different… I wasn't sure why, yet.

**A/N: Okay~ finally back with this new chapter.  
As you can see, I've skipped up in time slightly. This chapter was basically just to get the background of Sollux's character put out there. I was ready to skip up, and write the newer chapters like that, when I realized, Gamzee and Karkat, both had a background set up, as characters, while Sollux did not. Sollux's background was actually what pumped me up into writing the story in the first place, so I don't know how I forgot him.  
The last part of the chapter was basically to show where we were in time period, first of all, and then to establish, that after all that drama, I was going back to the main storyline.  
So, even if this was mostly just a chapter about background story, I hope you guys liked it! I'm really excited for future chapters.  
Thank you for reading! And follow and/or review, if you have the time. Until then, guys. **


	7. Purrfectly Acceptable Note Exchanging

Some people obnoxiously texted me during class, others whispered behind my back, somehow giggling and gossiping without ever getting caught, others, like Nepeta, passed notes. And they weren't just subtle basic conversation notes, no, when Nepeta wrote a note in class, they were weird as shit, fucking cat RP notes, but at least she kept things interesting.

_*ac gives karkitty a pawsitivly happy grin, befur curling up in his lap, and nuzzling him, as a form of gr33ting*_

It didn't phase me when the optimistic cat girl passed me that note during class, I'd grown quite used to her weird behavior. Accustomed to it, actually.

I shook my head, noticing her glancing over at me, as I read her RP starter. I never really RPED with her, not seriously anyway, whenever I did, it was mostly mocking.

I wrote my reply underneath hers before passing it back to her hesitantly making sure the teacher wasn't looking at us.

_*KARKAT ASKS WHAT THE FUCK IS AN AC, AND WHY TENTSQUATTING BITCHFUCK ARE YOU REFERRING TO YOURSELF AS THAT.*_

_*ac giggles and explains to the distressed karkitty for the fifth time at least that it's short for arseniccatnip which is her roleplay name*_

_*KARKAT WONDERS WHY THE FUCK HE'S REPLYING TO AC'S NOTES IN A FASHION SUCH AS THIS, AND REMINDS HIMSELF TO STOP RIGHT FUCKING NOW*_

_*ac sighs dismembered, knowing that no one is willing to understand her roleplaying n33ds*_

_ARE YOU GOING TO THE FIELD TRIP AT THE END OF SCHOOL?_

_i haven't gotten purrmission yet but i'm sure i'll be there._

_DON'T LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU, IT'S NOT AN ACTUAL FIELD TRIP, IT'S MORE LIKE A FUCKING BEGINNING OF SUMMER PARTY._

_oh really? h33h33, when you put it that way it s33ms more tempting. i'll have to get my mom to stop purcrastinating on signing the purrmission slip._

"Excuse me, would you like to make your conversation public, Mr. Vantas?"

Our teacher interrupted our conversation just as I began to reply to her last note.

"No, I—"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Norwell. I was the one who started it, Karkitty was only replying to me, if pawsible can we leave him out of this one?"

Our teacher blinked, almost shocked that a student was so readily taking the fall.

"That's quite all right, Miss Leijon, just don't let me see either one of you passing notes in my class again," He shrugged, letting it slide.

All the teacher's absolutely adored Nepeta, I would say she was a teacher's pet, but that was way too sickeningly fitting with her cat complex and all.

"Remember, class. School is a place of learning, not socializing."

...

"Teacher alw-ways say that…"school is a place of learnin, not socializin"." Eridan mimicked as the three of us left that class.

"W-when Cronus, or anyone else talks about the "highschool experience" I never hear them going off about the learnin parts, only the crazy things they did w-with their friends."

"That's a good point, Eridan." Nepeta agreed, as she stuffed her history books in her locker.

"It's really hypurrcritical of them too! They all go to the teacher's lounge, and get to socialize, and then they purrtend that school is a place of learning! If _I _were a teacher, I'd have a big shipping wall of all my students, and whenevefur I would give a group assignment, I'd pair the students up ship-wise!"

"Nepeta, that's fucking creepy." I informed, shutting my locker.

"Not really, don't purtend that you aren't a shipper at heart, Karkitty." She giggled, nudging me.

"What the fuckjamming shitstain are you implying?" I demanded.

"Sollux may have… leaked some infurmation out to me." She winked, stringing me along.

My mental waves went from confused, to infuriated, whatever Sollux told her, he was going down.

"What did that dickfucking douche bag tell you?" I sighed.

"Oh, just something about a shipping grid at the fifth grade lunch table."

_…Okay. _So, there may have been this one time, that I drew a grid telling John and Dave that they had to marry Rose and Jade someday, but it was a one fucking time thing!

My face heated up slightly, and I groaned.  
Nepeta looked delighted, knowing that my reaction meant that whatever Sollux had told her was the real deal.

"I fuckin _told _you, Kar. Sol just isn't a guy to be trusted." Eridan informed, slinging his backpack over his shoulder as the three of us started making our way through the crowded hall.

Eridan was going to a separate classroom for his next class, and Nepeta and I were meeting up with Gamzee.

"Shut the fuck up, Eridan. We all know you're head over heels in _love _with Sollux."

Nepeta smirked a little.  
"Karkitty, that sounded pretty shipper-ish."

"W-what." Eridan frozed, his eyes narrowing.

"No. I could be more "head over heels in love" with anyone _other _than Sol. Man, fuck that guy."

I groaned, not willing to argue with him.  
It had been more of an attempt to annoy him in the first place, then it was an actual accusation of a crush.

"Yeah, yeah, you can be in love with an ugly shamefucking shitsponge for all I care." I informed honestly.

"Kaaaar…I though w-we were friends…" Eridan whined, stopping by the door of his next class, as Nepeta and I continued to walk.

"Fuck off, Ampora." I held up my middle finger, as I continued to walk, Nepeta by my side.

She shook her head at our interactions with each other, before waving at Eridan, then half running, half skipping to catch back up to me.

I slowed down a little to match her walking pace.

"Before I forget," I started.

"I know it's a school night, but I have to help Gamzee study before finals tomorrow, do you think theres any possible way you could convince your mom to let you come over as well? Unless you're there to keep the study session interesting then it'll be like a retarded douche bag, trying to teach a braindead hyena to drive."

Nepeta laughed at my comparison.

"No purroblem, I'll check in, I'm sure if it's just a study group and not some wild party mom will be okay with me hanging out with you two on a school night."

I nodded in reply, as the two of us took our spots together, in class, and Gamzee came up to us, greeting us like we hadn't spoken in days, when in reality, I had seen him in the morning, _and _our first few classes of the day.

The douchefuck made it seem like a couple hours were like a thousand fucking years to him.

_**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is short! But hey, you have the field trip to look forward too~ thats just a few chapters away! Plus, I've been doing pretty well updating, with MY fanfiction track record. I've actually been getting ready for comic con. My best friend and I are taking the train into boston, and we're going as John and Jade, so we're pretty excited about that. For me it**_**_'s like "can't sleep at night" excited. In fact, it's 10:30, and I should be asleep right now.  
So yeah! I'll be updating sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading, and be sure to follow if you haven't already, and reviews are much appreciated. Until next time!_**


	8. The Beginning Of A Long Night

The original plans had been that Gamzee—and hopefully Nepeta would come over to my house, for the study group, or whatever the fuck this was, because my dad wouldn't be home, and we would have been completely on our own.

Which would have been nice, and a whole lot fucking easier, but as soon as Gamzee's busy-body doltish foster parents heard two of his friend were meeting up with him to help him study for finals, they jumped right onto having us come over to _his _house.

Which was the absolute worst, because I just knew with every fiber of my ungodly being that they would be up and down the stairs "checking up" on all of us.

I tried to insist that Gamzee came over to _my _house, but they wouldn't have it.

I texted the directions to Gamzee's house, to Nepeta's phone later on that evening when I got the official plans.

Ever since Nepeta had come to school in April, she'd gotten gradually closer to me, and I wasn't sure which one of us was doing the work.  
I wasn't sure if we'd had gotten closer, because of my intentions, or if she had intentions of her own.

But… what _were _my intentions with her? And what were hers with me?

I would feel pretty fucking stupid if she only wanted to be friends.  
But wait.  
When… in the undulating cactusfuck had I decided that I wanted to be _more _than friends with her?  
And would we ever get the chance to be that way?

Even if she _were _to like me back… would I even be brave enough to own up to my feelings?  
I would look like a complete and utter douche bag, if I let _her _confess.

But wait… what the fuck.  
I was getting ahead of myself again! I didn't even know if she liked me, I didn't even know if I liked _her…_

It was just… when we were together… I didn't feel the way I felt with Gamzee, or Sollux, or even Terezi.

Terezi… the girl that I had convinced myself that I _loved _in middleschool.

Now, even when I was with Terezi these days, I felt as if, maybe we never had anything in the first place?  
Maybe we had just been overeager friends, because when I thought of Nepeta, and then Terezi… it was an entirely different feeling I got from it.

I'd lost my train of thought, and drifted into the usual subject that floated around in my mind.  
Which was Nepeta, herself.

I was interrupted though, by a text.  
I shut my laptop, setting it on the coffee table, as I _was _sitting on the couch in the living room, seeing as my dad wasn't home.

I picked up my phone scrolling through the many scattered texts from Gamzee and Sollux, to find the new one, which was from Nepeta.

_*ac solemnly informs karkitty that she is on her way to gamz33's house, and wonders if purchance karkitty is on his way as well*_

I rolled my eyes, at her odd RP-style of texting.  
She talked like this, even to people who weren't into roleplaying.  
Me, for example.

It was almost cute, in a semi-dorkish way.

_YEAH, YEAH. GAMZEE DOESN'T LIVE FAR FROM ME, I'LL LEAVE IN A SECOND._

*ac smiles and waves slightly informing karkitty that that plan sounds pawsitivly purrfect and that she'll see him shortly*

God fucking dammit.

Why couldn't I stop smiling, even at the sight of her texts?  
This was just downright fucking pathetic.

. . . .

"Gamzee, I'm here—"

I walked into Gamzee's place, without knocking, seeing as we'd known each other since almost as long as I could think back, so he and I were definitely at those terms.  
But what I hadn't expected was to be greeted loudly by his over the top shamefucking foster parents.

"Oh, um, hey..." I blinked a few times.

No matter how many times I met them, even though they'd been his foster parents for 6 years, I still never knew what to think of them.  
They seemed perfectly okay, just a bit… up in your face, and all I knew was that Gamzee absolutely hated them, but gave no reason for it, other than the fact that they weren't his real parents.

They informed me, that Nepeta had already arrived moments earlier, and that she and Gamzee were upstairs.

I thanked them quickly, and headed straight for the stairs, not wanting to get sucked into a long unimportant conversation.

I opened Gamzee's door, to find him and Nepeta sitting on his bed criss-cross, folding up, and cutting different sheets of paper, Nepeta giggled, taking Gamzee's misshapen origami animal, and folded the right sides for him to fix it.

"What in the love of a douchesquatting fuckstain are you two doing?" I demanded, shutting his door, and setting my bag, full of text books onto the floor.

"I'm showing Gamzee how to make a purrfect papur origami finger puppet!" She said, jumping off the bed, and holding a little cat puppet up close to my face.

"Do mew see it now, Karkitty? It's a cat~!"

Fuck, you guys! I've only just arrived and this scenery is already completely elusive, and distracting as hell." I informed, crossing my arms.

"Seeing what direction this is going into, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take charge as the leader of this study group."

With this, Nepeta and Gamzee both groaned, they knew what this meant.

"Karkitty, nooooo… it's a study group. There isn't leader spot up fur grabs!" Nepeta whined.

"Shes right, best friend." Gamzee tagged behind her.

"Anyway, this _is _all up in _my _motherfucking house, so if anyone gets that spot, it's me, right?"

"Get your head out of your ass, Gamzee. Everyone knows that for a group this out of control , there _has _to be a leader, and the obvious choice for leader is me." I went on.

Nepeta raised her hand.

"No questions, Nepeta." I brushed her off, and then without another word, dumped my text books out on Gamzee's bed.

With the sight of all those books tumbling down onto his bed, they both knew this was the beginning of a long night.

**A/N: Hey guys! I'm finally back! Sorry for the short hiatus. I went to comiccon, as Jade, and it was /amazing/! There was a whole Homestuck photoshoot, and all the Homestucks grouped together, and I met the most amazing Dave who took lots of DaveJade photos with me.  
Enough about that though. ^^;  
This chapter was short, but it's late at night, and I'm I shortened it.**  
**Theres a lot more about the study group thing in the next chapter. It was supposed to be this chapter, but like I said... sleepy. ^^;;**  
**Review and/or follow if you can, and until next time, bye guys!**


	9. Dozing Off

"Gamzee."

"_Gamzee. _What the fuck? Are you even listening to me?"

"Motherfucking _chill, _best friend. Why do I have to learn all this boring shit?" He whined slightly, finally responding to me, trying to get his attention.

We'd been at it for a few hours now, and it was past 9:00, Gamzee's parents had even stopped coming upstairs to check on us.  
Gamzee was laying his bed, his eyes locked on the ceiling, as if the patterns on his ceiling were more important to him, than him fucking passing the 11th grade.

"Gamzee, you've failed before! You've gotten _held back._ And no good came of it, did it? You could be graduating this year, but _no, _you're here in the 11th grade, like the pompous vacuous shitstain that you are." I grumbled on, trying to get him to focus.

"Nah, best friend. When I failed the 5th grade, I got held up a year, and got to motherfucking hang out with _you. _See, man? Miracles._" _

So, I'd said before that Gamzee and I met in preschool, what I'd meant was… I'd met him when _I _was in preschool, Gamzee on the other hand, was in Kindergarten. We were introduced by our parents, Gamzee had still been with his dad at the time, and my dad had known him.

Yes, Gamzee was a whole year _older _than me.  
He'd just fucking _failed _the 5th grade, resulting in him, being with me for all these years.

"But, _Gamzee!"_ Nepeta finally chipped in.

"If mew fail the 11th grade, mew won't get to _be _with Karkitty anymore! He'll be a senior, and you'll only get to sit together during lunch, if mew are _lucky! _And that will be it!"

This seemed to sink in with Gamzee a tiny bit more.

"So, what you're sayin', sis… is that I won't get to all up and motherfucking be with my best bros anymore?"

Nepeta nodded.

"Purcisely."

Gamzee rubbed his eye, and rolled over to face Nepeta and I, who were sitting on his floor, below him.

"Aight, man. I hear your distress call, I'll motherfucking listen to you, for as long as a motherfucker can endure."

Nepeta clapped.  
"That's the spirit!"

I didn't see how that was the spirit, he had hardly agreed to anything, but I guess it was better than nothing.

"All right, now stop bitchshitting around, you insipid son of fuck, we have work to do!"

. . . .

10:45pm, and Nepeta and I had crammed as much information into Gamzee's brain as possible.

We were all beginning to be a bit disorientated, since it was late at night.  
Gamzee's foster parents were already asleep, and Gamzee seemed close to it.

He was looking at his ceiling again, his eyes drooping, and I couldn't even keep my eyes focused on the book in front of me, the words kept blurring.  
I couldn't even bring myself to look at Nepeta to see what state she was in at the moment.

_Maybe… if I just slept for… five …minutes… I would… be able to brave the rest of this…_

. . . .

I woke with a start at the sound of one of Gamzee's horns, I was about ready to yell at that insane son of a douchefuck, when I realized he was curled up asleep on the bed, he had a few horns close by, his foot must have nudged one it by mistake.

It was weird, that I was the only one who was startled enough by it to wake up.  
I grumbled under my breath to myself, still incredibly tired, and then I tried to move my left arm so that I could rub my eye, but I realized something was holding it down.

Confused, I turned my head slightly, and then instantly knew what had went down.

Nepeta was fast asleep beside me, with her head on my shoulder, and one of her arms wrapped around me to keep herself steady.

My breath hitched slightly, as I was startled by the whole situation.  
I kept myself quiet, because I slowly realized, I didn't _want _to wake her up, she looked so peaceful, and so innocent just curled up next to me, and I wondered slightly to myself whether she had been conscious when she cuddled up to me, if she had been half asleep, just looking for something to lean up against.

Without thinking, I slipped my arm around her to support her more, being careful not to wake her up, but with this movement, her head fell from my shoulder, and found it's way down to my chest.

Nepeta grumbled a bit in her sleep, and then without any warning signs wrapped both her arms around me.

I felt my face slowly flushing over with hot red blush, and I thanked fucking _god _that no one was awake to see it.

"Karkitty…?"

I stood corrected.

Nepeta blinked a few times, groggily saying my name, trying to wake herself up, she groaned, obviously not wanting to.  
Once she snapped out of it a bit more, those bright green eyes of hers met mine, and she realized how close we were and instantly pulled away, her face heating up immensely.

"I-I'm sorry…!" The words slipped from her mouth, rushed, and obviously still tired, with a mix of her embarrassment.

"I-it was pawsitivley on accident, I would _never _snuggle so closely to mew without purrmission…! I mean—I… well… mew must be pretty purrplexed, as to why I would do that…! Um… the explanation is simply that I was asleep and unaware of what I was doing…and…and… I'm sorry…"

She was talking so fast it was hard to make out what she was saying, she just kept blabbing on and on, until finally I just grabbed her by the wrist to get her attention.

_"Nepeta." _

She froze, and stared at me with those green eyes, confused, and startled.

"…Yes…?"

Fuck.  
I realized a second too late that I didn't think up anything to say to her.

"I-I..!" I started off.  
"Well, I just—what I mean to fucking say is… well, I don't mind if you cuddle up to me." I finally let the words slip out of my mouth.

"Oh…" She blinked.  
"A-are mew sure…?"

I mentally cursed myself, trying not to let my face heat up with blush again.

I nodded.  
"Yeah, I'm sure."

A timid smile crossed her lips, and she nodded.

"Oh, okay…"  
We both looked at each other, and for once, neither of us broke the eye contact, we just kept looking into each other eyes.

I felt myself get a little closer to her, and she took a hint and started getting closer to me as well, the whole time, we didn't break the eye contact.

What the hell?  
Was I… actually going to kiss her? Was that what I was leading up to?

Oh my god… what the fuck, I'd never kissed a girl before! Well, I guess I'd kissed Terezi, but… that hardly counted!

In the short time we were together, if there was_ever _a kiss on the lips, she would lean in first.  
It was usually a kiss to shut me up, and it would only last a few seconds.

We had never kissed passionately like in the movies, it was always just a short peck to shut me up, or before we split up to go to different classes.

Would Nepeta even_want _to be kissed passionately like in the movies..?  
Or, would she just want a soft, short, sweet one…?  
Oh god!  
What the fuck was I doing?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gamzee's clock, it was almost 11:30.

I quickly pulled away from her, before she and I could do anything, and I used the first excuse that I could think of.

"W-well…! It's late. I'd better, um… get you home…I'll walk with you there, okay?"

Nepeta took a moment to respond, she was either angry, or just startled that I'd pulled away out of nowhere.

After a few seconds, she looked up, smiling sadly.

"Okay, sounds good." She nodded.

**A/N: Okay~! I'm back, guys. owo  
I decided to update before I left today, because Friday is always the day that I hang out with my best friend, and sometimes we hang out Saturday too, so theres really not much time for updating during the weekend.  
But..! I reached 50 followers! Which was my goal for the story! Hehe~ next goal I have is 80, so I'll see if I'm able to get that far with this! But I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was one of the first /actual/ KatNep moments. So yeah~ follow and/or review if you can! I'll see you all next time~ until then! OwO **


	10. June 12th

Days and days passed, and Nepeta and I didn't say a word about our near-first kiss. I honestly felt fucking horrible about it, I must have made a complete and utter douche of myself, but honest to fucking god, I hadn't meant it, I wasn't sure what had taken over me in that moment.

I didn't think it had started out as romantic intent, but I let my mind wander for two seconds, and suddenly the two of us were close to kissing!  
How the fuckdropping hell does something like that just _happen? _

I wanted to bring it up to her, and try and apologize for being a total asshole, but the mere thought of it, as my brother would have put it, was… very triggering.

I opened my eyes, and glanced over at my clock, it was still dim in my room, so I figured it couldn't be time to get up for school yet, sure enough it was only 5:30am, I groaned rolling over to my side, clutching the comforter, trying to not let myself wake up fully.  
Once I woke up fully it was fucking over.

Why was it that the time your bed always felt the most comfortable was in the morning when you were being forced to wake up?  
I could hear my dad scuttling about the house, getting ready for work.  
I hardly ever saw my dad, and when he _was _home he was on his computer.  
It was completely fine by me because I hated that bastard's guts.

As much as I hated Kankri for bailing out on me, I just knew that once I graduated highschool, I'd be following right in his footsteps, and running right off to college.

I started calculating the days, trying to remember what day it was, and my mind stopped on Wednesday.  
Fuck, I'd silently hoped that it was closer to Friday.

It was _so close _to summer I almost couldn't take it, I just wanted to fast forward the next week or so, but instead it was slow, and repetitive like a broken record.

Little did I know this day would be obnoxiously different.

I must have let myself doze back off, what seemed to be a two minute nap, was really me falling asleep for another hour, and then being rudely awakened by my alarm clock.

I grumbled, a couple of swear words leaving my mouth before I threw myself out of bed to hit the snooze button.

It would have felt so fucking amazing to just turn off my alarm clock, and go back to sleep for the rest of the day, forgetting school, but with eight days of school left, it seemed like a big waste to start slacking off now.

I stumbled over to where I'd laid out my school uniform, and still half asleep put it on, the uniform for boys at my school were khakis and a white button up shirt with the initials of the school in red on the pocket of the shirt.

The rules for shoes were pretty simple, kids could wear shoes of any color, only no heels, and no open toe shoes.

I slipped on black converse, and looked in the mirror, getting a look at my messy black hair, I lazily ran my fingers through it, noticing the roots of it were slowly turning grey.

The thought of the roots of my hair made me remember my contacts, I put in my brown color contacts and then grabbed my bag, giving a silent nod to my appearance I headed down the stairs.

You see, I didn't _care _about fashion, but I did have a secret.

The thing was, I didn't have black hair and brown eyes like people might think, or I wasn't born with them.

Okay… I was born with white hair, and red eyes. Yeah, yeah, a _fucking albino. _

The second I entered second grade, I gave myself a bad dye job, and then begged for color contacts.

In kindergarten one of the kids started a rumor that a kid had been killed in our classroom, and me, with my white hair, kids started to think _I _was the ghost.  
I vowed to pay back the kid who started the rumor, but sadly, I couldn't remember a thing about the kid, it'd been way too long ago, and I couldn't remember if he even went to school with me anymore.

Anyway, yeah, back to the dye thing, the last few days before second grade started, I bought black hair dye with the money that I'd saved up myself, and then proceeded to rid myself of my snow white colored hair, only Kankri walked in on me doing it, and was exceedingly triggered.

But just my luck it was too late, the process had already started.

Though thoroughly opposed to it, he helped me finish what I'd started because he didn't want me to look _completely_ awful.

Then afterwards it was Kankri who I begged to buy me color contacts, and still opposed he helped me with that as well, and that was the last I ever saw of my old albino self, I got regular dye jobs, and _always _wore brown color contacts.

The only friend I had knew me far enough to remember my white hair and red eyes was Gamzee, and he was always way too high to recall it.

As far as my friends knew, I had black hair, and brown eyes.  
Though, Terezi had hinted otherwise more than once, and she was the only one obsessively interested in it.

I gulped orange juice, and threw my cup in the dishwasher before, looking down at my watch and heading out the door, completely oblivious of what was in store for the day.

. . . .

It was today of all days, I decided to get on the bus instead of walking like I usually did, I was still incredibly tired, and couldn't get over it, and I hoped I could doze off a bit on the bus for a bit before we got to school, but as soon as I walked onto the bus, I heard a voice that informed me mentally that there would be no dozing off for me.

"Well, well, well, look who it is, Terezi." Vriska nudged her blind friend, using the wrong choice of words, though Terezi didn't seem to mind.

"Who?" She asked.

"It's your friend Kitkat~." She informed.

"It's _Karkat, _you insufferable dumbfuck." I retorted, taking the seat in front of them.

"Oh, it really _is _you, Karkles!" Terezi laughed a little, putting her hands on the top of my seat casually leaning up closer to me.

"So what brings you to the bus, Karkat? Don't you usually walk?" She asked.

I rolled my eyes, secretly hoping that the bus would halt to a stop suddenly, just so she'd fall back from the place where she was comfortably leaning, but no such luck.

"Well, I was fucking _hoping _to doze off for a little longer, but then I was greeted by the goddamn looneyblock, any chance the two of you could… I don't know… shut the fuck up?" I asked.

Vriska chuckled, pulling Terezi back down to her seat, as the bus came to a halt in front of the next bus stop.

"Sorry, no can do loser, there's no sleeping on _my _bus."

"Oh, come on Vriska, it _is _his birthday." Terezi said, with a serious nod.

"What? No it's not." I instantly retorted.

"…You're kidding." Terezi said slowly.

"No, I'm not, it's not my birthday." I irritably informed.

"Karkat, are you serious? It is."

"It isn't."

"It's June 12th, dumbass."

"Fuck."

…I knew something was different about this day, I remembered crossing off the days on my calendar the night before, feeling like something seemed odd, but then shrugging it off.

It really was my birthday wasn't it?

"Don't think that pretending like it isn't your birthday will throw me off track, Karkat!"She crossed her arms, begrudgingly.

"Whoa, thseriously? Ith it the 12th already…?" Sollux entered the bus, overhearing the conversation before casually taking the seat beside me.

I turned to him glaring.

"Hey douchesack, get out of this fucking seat, I swear to ever loving god that I will lay my head on your shoulder, I'm still tired as fuck." I snapped at him, already annoyed by the thought of my birthday, and Vriska and Terezi's constant blabbing.

"Jeez KK, you theem like even more of an athhole than usual. What the fuck did you thtick up you ath?" Sollux chuckled, only finding my minor tantrum amusing.

"C'mon, your birthday ithn't _tho _horrible, you don't have to bitch about it."

"Yeah, Karkat! See? Even Sollux agrees." Terezi leaned over to me smugly again.

I narrowed my eyes at her, and then turned to Sollux, flipping him off before leaning my head on his shoulder, still feeling overly tired.

There was silence between us for a few seconds before he opened his smartass mouth.

"Thith ith what you get for thtaying up all night on the internet, douthbag."

"Shut up."

. . . .

"Karkitty!" I suddenly got tackled from behind by the unmistakable girl who was Nepeta Leijon, as I was standing in the hallway, throwing some things in my locker before I headed off to lunch.

"Ack—Nepeta, what the fuck?" I asked, startled, and unprepared for someone to tackle me, nonetheless, I stayed on my feet.

"I was just with Sollux, and he told me something interesting about mew~!"

I groaned, closing my locker, and turning to face her, she had a big grin on her face, but as soon as she knew she had my full attention, she crossed her arms acting pouty.

"I cannot _believe_ mew let me go through all those classes with mew, and mew didn't tell me it was your birthday, it would be so unfurtunate for me to miss such an important day!"

Didn't anyone understand that it wasn't an important day to _me?_

"Well, it wouldn't be unfortunate, because in case none of you fucking knew, I don't give two flaming shits about my birthday." I informed.

Nepeta gasped.

__

"Karkitty!" 

She looked at me with a cute sad expression, but then, just grabbed my hand, and started dragging me towards the cafeteria.

"Nepeta, what in god's name—"

"Just shut the furrick up for a second." She giggled, still pulling me.

She dragged me to the usual table, where I was greeted by Gamzee, Sollux, Eridan, Terezi, and a few others.

I was scared stiff that these assholes were planning on singing to me, but thankfully they didn't.

I froze for a second, staring at them all, realizing I was safe, I sat down next to Gamzee, and Nepeta sat on the other side, next to me.

"Thank fucking god." I breathed out loud.

"For half a second I thought you fucktards were planning on singing—"

And that's the time they chose to start singing.

Gamzee took a cupcake out of his lunch bag, and took out a lighter, lighting the candle that was on top of it, and he started singing badly, followed by the rest of the group at the table.

I begrudgingly blew the candle, and Terezi leaned over to me afterwards and whispered something to me.

"Don't eat the cupcake, Karkat. Gamzee made it."

After she said that she laughed, and then started to skip off to the table where Vriska impatiently waited for her.

Unexpectedly she came back a few seconds later.

"Oh, by the way." She leaned over and pecked me on the cheek, before finishing her sentence.

"Happy birthday, Karkles."

And with that, she left, leaving me flustered, and the table in silence for a few seconds.

"How doeth someone like you land a chick like Terezi?" Sollux wondered out-loud.

"Because Kar is charming, unlike _you, _Sol." Eridan retorted.

"Oh my god ED, thut. The. Fuck. Up!" Sollux snapped, turning, and shoving Eridan, slightly, which, unsurprisingly led to yet another full-on fight.

I glanced over at Nepeta, who looked slightly sad, but as soon as she noticed me looking at her, she smiled at me a little, before leaning over and hugging me lightly.

"Happy birthday, Karkitty."

**A/N: /Finally/ I got this done! I've been wanting to get a chapter done for awhile, guys, but bleh... I've been so tired lately, my mom and a few of my siblings left the house for a couple hours today, and I finally buckled down.  
So yeah! This chapter was pretty long. I hope you liked it, I'll update again soon! Thank you for reading follow and/or review if you have the time!  
Until next time~!**

~Raiden


	11. 10 More Minutes

The next week passed slower than ever, but even as slow as that felt, it's fucking amazing how long the last thirty minutes of the very last class of the year can seem.  
I stared at the clock, watching the time tick by ever so slowly.

_25 more minutes._

I started doodling in my notebook, knowing that all this last minute information the teacher was trying to cram into our brains was completely useless, and they were just trying to kill time.  
I glanced around the class room.

Feferi was staring at the clock with eager eyes, she absolutely loved the beach, her excitement showed, because she was overly fidgety, and if she could, I knew she be jumping out of her seat at the moment if she was allowed to.  
Eridan passed her a note, trying to distract her and keep her composed for the last few minutes we had in class.

Sollux was staring directly at the board was the teacher was writing last minute notes, but I could tell that Sollux, though he may look to any old teacher, like he was paying attention, I could see very clearly that he was bored out of his fucking mind, and was just staring off into space.

I looked over at Terezi I was nibbling on her pencil, which was usually a sign of boredom when it came from her, I could see her teal bikini straps through her white uniform shirt, as if she _knew_ I was looking at her, smiled a little, seeming as though it was directed towards me.

I looked at the back of the class, and saw Gamzee, who looked like he was about to doze off.

_20 more minutes. _

I was about to continue looking around the class, studying everyone's bored facial expressions, when out of nowhere I was nudged gently.

I looked to my left, where Nepeta was looking at me intently, and with as much stealth as possible, she handed me a note.

_*ac asks karkitty with a purrplexed look if he's ignoring the last few minutes of class on purpose*_

_*KARKAT PROMPTLY EXPLAINS TO THE PERPLEXED CAT GIRL THAT HE'S IGNORING CLASS BECAUSE THE USELESS SACK OF SHIT TEACHER IS OBVIOUSLY JUST BLABBING ON FOR THE SAKE OF BLABBING THE FUCK ON.*_

_*ac frowns at mew and infurms mew that it is quite pawsible mew are being too hard on the teacher*_

_*KARKAT EXPLAINS THAT HE DOESN'T GIVE TWO BLISTERING FUCKJAMS IF HE'S BEING HARD ON THE TEACHER*_

_*ac sighs and tells karkitty to just furget it, if that's how he's really going to be*_

I was out of responses for the moment so as a reply, I just looked at her shrugged my shoulders sheepishly.  
She smiled, rolling her eyes, and just shoot her head, and went back to writing something on her paper.

_10 more minutes._

Vriska was whispering something to Tavros, I grumbled to myself quietly, it seemed like the entire room was in slow motion.

"No, no, Eridan, I can't take it anymore!" Feferi hissed under her breath, fidgeting in her seat still.

"Fef, c'mon, it's like… 8 more fuckin minutes."

She grumbled, crossing her arms, the last few minutes of class were torture for Feferi more than others when she knew that as soon as the bell rung our entire class was getting on a bus to riding to the beach.

I heard from Ampora that when she was younger, her parents would have to drag her out of ocean screaming when it was time to go back home, and she was hardly better at this point.

_5 more minutes._

Even Sollux, who almost never seemed to get excited, seemed to be looking excitingly at the clock.

I glanced over at Nepeta again, who was texting, but hiding her phone behind her notebook from the teacher.  
When she clicked send, I didn't hear anyone's phone buzz, so she must have been texting someone who wasn't in our classroom…? A moment later, she got a text back, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the text she was getting back was blue.  
She giggled softly at the reply and texted back. I couldn't help but wonder who she was texting.

Suddenly, the bell rung, startling me, since I'd been gazing off, at random things, Feferi was the first to jump from her seat, clumsily stuffing all her stuff in her backpack, and she ran from the class room without a word.

Eridan chased after her, groaning and whining for her to wait up, and Sollux watched Eridan flee from the room, rolling his eyes, and quietly stuffing his pens and notebooks back in his bag.

Terezi and Vriska both headed out the door chatting away, and I finished packing up, myself.

Sollux walked right up to me, casually sitting on my desk to get my attention like the hopeless douche he was.

"Tho, are you ready to do thith thit?" He yawned.

"Whatever." I slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Let's go, you useless insufferable douchebag."

Sollux just shook his head at my insult, and the two of us headed out the door towards the bus, Nepeta and Gamzee not far behind us.

That's right, school was out, bitches.

_**A/N: Okay, yeah. This chapter was pretty uneventful. It's just one more chapter to keep a gap between the field trip chapter I've been planning. OwO Hehehehe~ I'm actually going to the beach on Wednesday. I haven't been to the ocean since I was 10 years old. eue It should be nice, I'm going there with my mom and my six siblings. (I have no clue what I'm blabbing on about right now it has nothing to do with anything, I'm just excited)  
But anyways, I'm excited about the next chapter so it should be up quite soon! So yeah, sorry for this kind of filler chapter. I'll make it up to you soon!  
**_


	12. Field Trip

"No, dad. We got out early, it's the end of school field trip, remember?"

I got a long drawn out response from him, I stood by, tuning it out mostly, moving the phone away from my ear.  
I didn't give two flying fucks what he had to say, to be honest.

I caught the last few words, which was roughly, "don't fuck things up, you got it?"

"Dad,yes. I fucking know!" I replied, clearly annoyed.

The more I sounded clearly annoyed the faster he'd get off the phone with me.

"Yeah, yeah, okay… bye."

I stood outside the bus as the last of the kids were getting on. Groaning, and cursing myself for being on the phone so long, I got on the bus knowing that most of the seats were probably taken, unless my friends had saved a spot for me.

I threw my bag over my shoulder, looking around. I spotted Nepeta and Terezi sitting next to each other, giggling about something, roleplaying, more than likely.  
That was one of the things they had in common, they were in the roleplay club together, and she got on with her and Vriska pretty well, despite that confrontation she had with them the first day.

Most of that had been put aside, but that didn't change that she always sat with Gamzee, Sollux, Eridan and I at lunch, and talked with us in the halls.

Their relationship didn't go beyond the RP club room, and the occasional text, and of course countless roleplays.

As much as that sounded, it wasn't much. So it was a little odd to see the two of them happily talking to each other.

I always felt as if there was some unspoken tension between them.

Or, maybe… it _was_ spoken of, just not in front of me.

Terezi, startlingly turned her shaded eyes towards me, and grinned.

"Oh, is that Karkat I smell coming towards us?" She asked.

"Oh, stop fucking shitting yourself, Terezi, we all know you can't _smell _me." I groaned, stopping in front of them as the bus doors were closing.

It was a two minute warning before we'd be heading off, I'd have to stop fucking off, and find a spot before the bus started moving.

"Oh, you'd be surprised, Karkles. You're pretty easy to sniff out." She strung me along.

"Oh really? Then tell me, Terezi, without thinking long about it, what the fuck do I even smell like?"

I figured I would stump her with that, but she'd obviously thought this one through.

"Pent up anger, hair dye, and a hint of cherry." She answered, proudly.

I blinked.

"How do you _smell _anger?" I asked, avoiding the topic of hair dye, but at the same time I was genuinely curious as to how she was so vomit-inducingly sure of herself.

"Oh, there's just something about him that screams "I'm pushing back a shitload of anger" don't you think, Nepeta?"

She turned to Nepeta, who looked as if she felt bad for agreeing, but she nodded.

"It seems totally pawsible. No offense to mew Karkitty, just call it… a roleplayer's intuition…?" She smiled sheepishly.

"That, and a really strong nose." Terezi agreed with Nepeta's statement, and then added her own explanation.

I rolled my eyes and waved slightly at Nepeta, signaling that I was taking off to the back of the bus, with that, she and Terezi went on endlessly blabbing.

Once I got closer to the back, I found Gamzee sitting next to Tavros, and upon that, I found that Feferi had ditched Eridan for Sollux, and was now endlessly chatting, leaving Sollux with a completely overwhelmed look on his face.

Not far behind, was Eridan watching Feferi and Sollux begrudgingly, with an almost childish pout on his face, his arms crossed.

And the seat next to him was the first empty seat that I'd spotted that was next to someone slightly fucking tolerable, I that's who I ended up sitting next to.

The ride was only going to be 30, maybe 40 minutes, so tolerating Eridan was better than sitting next to some other pimplesqueezing dick sucker.

"What's with your face, Ampora?" I asked, casually.

"There's not a fuckin thin' wrong with my face, Kar!" I snapped back at me, as if he took that with offense.

"That was an honest to fucking god genuine concern, you pretentious douche." I snapped back.

"I wasn't making _fun _of your face, but now that I think of it, I should be, the question was regarding that shitty over the top fuckcrumpet of a look that you have on your face, asshole."

"You wanna know w-what's wrong with my face, Kar?!" He continued, building up the drama.

"I already fucking said that I did!" I retorted.

"W-well…! I just don't like Fef hanging out with…_him."_

"Him?"

"Sol!"

"What's your problem with it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I just don't trust him with her, the guy is a fuckin asshole, just… aggh! Fuck him."

"You know, I can hear you athhole, you're only three theats behind uth." Sollux groaned.

"Yeah, Eridan! Keep your glubbing gossip for your desperate chat rooms." Feferi looked back at us, rolling her eyes.

Eridan resumed him douchey pouty expression after that remark.

I lowered my tone so the others wouldn't hear me.

"Calm the fuck down, blithering waste of time of a person, Feferi will forget about Sollux the second she sets foot on that beach." I informed.

He sighed a little.

"I guess you're right."

. . . .

"Fef, w-wait…!" Eridan whined chasing Feferi, as she ran head first into the ocean.

She was wearing afuchsia colored, two piece, with lace on it, and she had let her crazy long hair down, goggles in place, and had gone charging straight for the ocean.

Everyone had changed in the out houses before we'd even gotten to the actual beach, right beforehand, but as soon as she saw the ocean she was long gone, and not even listening to Eridan who was, supposedly her best friend.

I stood by watching the crowd for the time being, everyone some were talking excitedly, while other had already started playing in the sand, or had gone after Feferi into the water.

"Oh Kaaaarkles~!" I heard Terezi call out to me.

She, Nepeta and Vriska were all grouped together, as the two of them looked at what Terezi had in her hand.

"I think I found one of your brethren."

She held out a crab that was scuttling around in her hands trying to get away.

Of course she was referencing the time she, Gamzee, and I had gone to the beach in the 7th grade.  
I'd chased around the crabs on the sand into the ocean calling "Go forth, my brethren".

But god, I was like, 12 or 13 when that had happened, she never let anything go.

But… still… that crab.  
It was so cute.  
Oh my god, what the fuck was I doing?

"I'm taking it back to the water, Terezi." I told her, dully.

"Awwww." She groaned, as I pried it from her hands.

Of course, it was_me_ that it pinched, as soon as I took it, even though it had acted completely harmless when Terezi had been holding it.

"Ow, mother_fucker—" _I hissed through gritted teeth, shaking the crab off me, it hit the ground, and then started quickly scuttling off towards the water.

"Did I hear a brother calling out to me?" Gamzee instantly responded after I threw the crab off myself.

"No, Gamzee, I did not—"

Suddenly Terezi put her hands against my chest and started feeling around.

"Hey Karkat, how come you're wearing a tee shirt?" She asked casually, as if the fact that she was fucking_feeling me up _wasn't an issue.

Before I could answer, Gamzee did it for me.

He threw his arm around me, just as casually.

"Aw, man. Don't go off and motherfucking make fun of a bro just because he's uncomfortable with his body, that's not right."

Everyone within earshot started fucking laughing their asses off, as it was the funniest thing ever.

"No!" I groaned, raising my voice slightly, so others could hear me.

"You're all useless dickfucking piles of steaming horseshit, I wear it because I'm pale, and don't want to get sunburned!"

"Suuuuuuuure~." Vriska laughed, chipping in.

I rolled my eyes, yeah, this was a pretty shitty beginning for summer vacation.

**A/N: Helloooo~! OwO  
So yeah, this is part 1 of the beach chapter, there is more to come with that soon enough. And the next chapter is super important, so brace yourselves.  
I want to thank all the followers, and people that have been reviewing so far! I'm really happy with all the credit this has been getting!  
Also, to address this, I know sometimes people make the ancestors, like The Sufferer, and everyone else the trolls parents, but in this, it's humanize versions of their lusus', like, how Gamzee had an abusive dad, and all that, and Karkat doesn't really get along with his dad.  
So yeah, just thought I'd make that clear.  
All righty, I shall update soon! Until then, guys~!**


	13. Continious Confessions

For a lot of the time, I found myself being ditched with Terezi.  
One minute Nepeta was with us, the next I found Terezi and I alone, as if someone was plotting behind my back.

I was starting to wonder what jackass was constantly trying to get me to spend time with her, it almost seemed like Nepeta avoided us whenever we were together, and it was all just confusing.

I glanced over at Gamzee who was digging with his hands, attempting to bury his feet or something, Tavros was on a beach towel not far off, as Gamzee blabbed on to him as he did so.

Tavros hadn't really wanted to attend the field trip in the first place, but I heard that his parents had insisted on him tagging along, to help his social anxiety or some boring shit along those lines.

"Hey, Karkat." Terezi kicked sand at me, trying to get my attention again.

"What the f—why in the ugly fucklicking world would you do that?" I asked, stopping in my tracks, turning to look at her.

She stood in front of me in teal-ish blue-ish bikini, her arms behind her back innocently, as if she had nothing to do with it.

"To get your attention, silly~ you keep drifting off, whether it's into thoughts, or if you walk 7 feet away from me."

I rolled my eyes.

"Karkat _Vantas, _did you just roll your eyes at me?" She demanded.

I blinked, she may be blind, but she always seemed to read me really well.

"How the fuck would you even know?!" I retorted.

She chuckled a little, in the way that she always did. She had an unmistakable strange laugh.

"I _didn't_ know. Until you gave me that obvious response."

I groaned, crossing my arms, grumbling to myself, as I slowly let my guard down, and sat down in the sand, cross-legged.

It didn't take her long to follow and sit across from me.

With the sun beating down on us, her red frizzy hair looked even redder than it usually did, and her red sunglasses were shining brightly.

"God fucking dammit, Terezi." I grumbled, averting my eyes.

"What?" She questioned.

"Your glasses fucking blinding me." I told her.

She shrugged me off.

"Then, don't look."

That was the end of the conversation for awhile, we sat in silence, listening and glancing about.

Feferi was in the ocean still, singing some braindead Disney song from The Little Mermaid, Eridan was floating casually in the water, not far off from her.

I caught a glimpse of Nepeta in her olive green one-piece suit, her light brown caramel colored hair was also brighter under the sunlight, and it was almost odd seeing her in something other than that uniform of hers.

She was sitting in the sand, texting away, and it wasn't long before Sollux stopped and sat down next to her.  
He said something—something that was mostly pretentious and douchey, but whatever it was, it made Nepeta laugh.

I silently cursed myself for not being the one up there saying shit to make her laugh.

It just had to be _Sollux. _

"…So isn't weird no matter what we do we keep ending up hanging out today?" Terezi asked, suddenly breaking our silence.

I tore my eyes away from Sollux and Nepeta.

"Not really, I'm pretty fucking sure it's just the work of one of these assholes here on the beach with us." I shrugged.

"Do you think it's weird for us to be alone together like this?" She asked.

What the fuck was she spouting out of her shitspewer of a mouth?

Where the hell was this all coming from?

"No, not really. We're friends, right?" I answered, without thinking through what she was maybe implying with all that.

I realized two seconds after I blabbed that out.

Was she maybe implying that she… still liked me?

Put in a position like this, I knew that I'd end up having to spit out my feelings, I would have to admit it to her… and to _myself_ that I… liked Nepeta, didn't I?

…_Did_ I like her?

Fuck! Of course I did!  
No matter how much I denied it to myself, and tried to act like Nepeta and I were just friends, I _knew_ almost as soon as I saw her, somewhere in the back of my nonsense-spewing brain, that I didn't _just _want to be friends with her.

She was absolutely perfect.

Fucking _perfect. _

It was almost impossible for me to see any flaws with her, even the things I acted as if I found annoying about her, I really didn't.

I didn't mind her cat puns.  
I didn't mind her roleplaying.  
I didn't even mind that she constantly felt the need to call me "Karkitty"!

I couldn't help but to absolutely adore those big, bright, green, captivating eyes of her, and I still sometimes found myself making eye contact with her, without even meaning to.

I liked the color of her hair, and how soft it looked.

I liked her height, she wasn't super, over the top short, but she was still shorter than me by a few inches.  
I loved her optimism, she was so consistently optimistic, and thoughtful…and… fuck…

She was everything I'd ever fucking wanted.

I didn't even care!  
I couldn't deny it anymore.

"I don't know… it just sort of reminds me of when we were dating, you know?" Terezi continued, interrupting my thoughts.

This was it… I had to tell her, didn't I?  
I couldn't string her along, if she was trying to hint that she still had feelings for me.

"Terezi, I have to tell you something." I suddenly blabbed.

She looked at me, surprised.

"What is it?"

"The thing is…" I started, trying to find a nice way to put it.

"You're great, and I _used_ to like you that way, but I—"

"Oh my _COD!" _An agitated scream interrupted me, and both Terezi and I, and most likely some others, swung around to look at what was causing the sudden scene.

Feferi and Eridan were standing by the shore, and Feferi looked completely fed up, Eridan looked shocked by her shouting.

"Fef, do you maybe w-wanna talk somewhere privately about this…?" He asked, looking completely stunned by her shouting.

_"No." _ She sighed, taking a deep breath, and lowering her tone.

"Look Eridan, I like you, a lot, your intentions are good… _well. _They are most of the time, but I've been wanting to say this for a long time…"

Eridan looked confused.

"Say…w-what, exactly…?"

"Eridan, when I said earlier…that I didn't wanna be your girlfriend… I also meant, that I don't really wanna be your best friend either…" She said that, slowly, looking incredibly uncomfortable, and nervous.

"…W-what?" He asked, realization taking it's toll.

"I-I mean… it's not like I hate you… I like you a lot, and we can still be friends, but… maybe just more… casually…?"

"What do you mean…? W-what does "casual" mean? What do you mean by it?"

"…I had to salmon a lot of courage to say as much as I have, don't you think we can call it a day with this nonsense and just… have fun? It's the beginning of summer field trip!" She tried hard to get them off that topic, and the both of them knew fully well that a crowd was now listening into this conversation.

Feferi didn't wanna look like a bitch in front of everyone, and she didn't want to humiliate him in front of everyone more than she already had.

"No… I _w-want _you to fuckin tell me what you mean by all this, Fef!" He said, firmly, sticking to his question.

Feferi hung her head.

"To be glubbing honest with you… I get really sick of you following me around all the time, I don't wanna hurt you, Eridan… but…I need to breathe sometimes…you never listen to me, but then expect _me _to listen you spout out endless complaints all the time, and offer solutions to your half-baked drama queen problems!"

The whole entire thing finally sunk in with Eridan.

"…Oh." He blinked.

"If you'll excuse me, then…I have…somethin' I forgot to do."

And with that obvious excuse to run off, he did just that, he took off, away from Feferi, and the rest of the crowd.

Feferi looked like she felt really bad, but she didn't look like she was thinking of going after Eridan, she was standing by what she said.

And it was expected too, for what I'd fucking known, they weren't the best pair of best friends in the world.

Everyone seemed to be returning to what they'd been previously doing, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sollux sneaking off from the group, in the same direction Eridan had run off to.

…Well, that was an unexpected turn of events.

. . . .

The rest of the day was relatively just a normal beach day.

I found myself somehow getting ditched with Terezi a lot, still, though I didn't have the courage to say to her what I was going to say before, and she never brought any of it up.

We'd managed to set up a campfire, and it wouldn't be long before we'd be leaving the beach, seeing as the sun was getting close to setting.  
It'd been awhile since I'd seen Sollux after he'd run off after Eridan hours before.

He was returning the group now, only Eridan wasn't with him.

I stepped away from the campfire where everyone else was endlessly chatting.

"Well, look what the cat fucking dragged in here, it's Eridan's knight in shining armor, where _is_ the princess?" I started spouting out endless bullshit right off the bat, of course, only because he had been going on and on for years about how much he hated that Hipster bastard, only to prove himself an obvious liar when he took off after him this afternoon.

"KK, thut the fuck up, I'm not _anyone's _knight in thhining armor, ethpethially not ED's."

"I call BS, you asshole." I stopped him from pushing passed me.

Sollux turned back to me, and looked at me, his arms crossed, his facial expression dull, as if to say "this had better be good" .

"Look, if you like Eridan, I don't give a shit about it, you like who you want to, is that what it fucking is? Are you scared of getting judged or some over the top batshit like that?"

Sollux groaned, and shook his head.

"You know what, KK? Tho what if I _do _like him? If I did like that douche, it would be none of your buthineth!"

This stunned me silent for a second, it wasn't often Sollux used such a serious tone with me, he seemed 100% fucking serious.

He saw the stunned look on my face, and before I could recollect myself and retort, he shook his head, feeling bad for snapping.

"Look, I'm thorry, okay?" He grumbled.

"I…I thort of… _do _like Eridan—"

"Fuck _yes!_" I cut him off.

"I called this one! I knew that you liked that repulsive crotchstained douchefuck, I fucking _called _it—"

Before I could go on, Sollux lunged at me, and covered my mouth, cutting me off, leaving my muffled grumbling.

"Okay… I'm going to uncover your mouth…and when I do, you're going to thut the fuck up." He said, clearly.

"I will fucking _lick _your hand." I retorted, but it was muffled by his hand pressed up against my mouth, so he couldn't understand me.

Before I could follow through with my threat, he pulled his hand away, and backed up a few paces, so he wouldn't be so close to me.

"Wow, Nepeta hath really been getting through to you with her thips, I didn't know that it'd gone thith far, though." He laughed a little bit.

"Shut your repulsive douche-kissing mouth, Sollux." I instantly came back at him with that.

"Look KK, I'll admit, I might like that athhole, just a little, but… it's for nothing, okay? Tho can we jutht be quiet about it, and never thpeak of it again?" He tried to drop it, and head to the campfire again, but I stopped him again.

"Why? Why shouldn't I speak of it? Are you two… well… going out or some shit, now?"

Silence.  
Dead fucking silence.

"I'm gonna thay thith one time, and one time only. Thith is the latht mention of thith whole… thituation, that thereth going to be." Sollux finally picked up the conversation again.

"ED will _never _like me back, okay? Thith is a thtupid one-thided thing, when he thayth that he hateth me, he meanth it. And I'm not going to even _try _to change that… jutht… let it go, KK."

This time, I let him slip by me.  
This always happened, ever since Aradia, whenever he liked someone, even just a little, he pushed it away. It was completely obvious that he wasn't over it.

No one ever talked about the incident; it was almost as if she never existed in the first place.

No one talked about her, or acknowledged that the halls in the school were the same halls she used to walk down.  
She was dead, but, it felt more like we'd all imagined her.

We were all around the campfire again, as the sky was just starting to turn pink from the setting sun.

Feferi asked about Eridan, and Sollux informed everyone that Eridan caught the city bus, and ditched.

"He must hate me…" Feferi hung her head upon hearing that he'd just ditched like that.

"Well, no thit—"

"It's purrfectly okay, Feferi." Nepeta cut Sollux off, placing a shoulder on the taller girl's shoulder.

"Purrhaps mew both need time apart to cool down, he _was _a furry needy best furrend, and if the friendship turned basically to him complaining and you listening to his endless chatter, I can see why mew weren't feline it."

"Goddammit, Nepeta, are your puns just fucking endless?" I questioned.

"You seem to be at the top of your motherfucking game, sis."

"Thank mew, Gamzee. See, Karkitty? _Some _people can be appreciative of vast knowledge of cat puns."

…Did she just basically snap at me?  
It hadn't exactly been snapping, it was more like, proving me wrong in a slightly vengeful tone.  
Since when did she ever talk to me like that?  
I mean, I could take a fucking hit, but it just seemed out of character for her.

Suddenly, it hit me.  
Why I'd spent so much time with Terezi, how I'd always ended up with her, for at least half the day.

It was all Nepeta, any time I tried to spend time with her, she always found some way to ditch me with Terezi.

But why?  
Why the fuck would she do this?  
Was this some dumbass plot to ship Terezi and I together?

"Hey Nepeta—"

I was cut off by the sound of Nepeta's ringtone, she glanced down at the caller ID, then back at us.

"I have to take this, mew guys. I'll be back." She said, and then without another word, she got up, and left the group, answering the phone.

This was my chance, I'd follow her, and when she got off the phone, I'd do it… I'd swallow my fucking pride and tell her.  
It was now, or never.

I slipped away from the group.

She walked across the beach, and sat down in the sand.

I kept my distance, because I wasn't going to stand over her while she was on the phone like a fucking creep.

"…You really like her, don't you?"

I turned around, seeing that Terezi had followed me.

It was a fair question, I had started to say it earlier, and now, here I was, waiting for a chance to confess, obviously standing around, waiting for Nepeta to get off the phone.

"…Yeah." I said, nodding slowly.

"Sorry."

"It's okay, I already knew." She shrugged.

"Sollux and I have a bet, if you confess to her tonight, I owe him fifteen bucks."

"So that means that you..?"

"Yup~! I bet that you would chicken out." She smirked, informing me.

"You fucking asshole." I retorted.

"I try."

I could hear Nepeta wrapping up her conversation.

Terezi jokingly saluted me.

"Karkat Vantas, you go get your woman."

She snickered at the venomous glare I gave her after she casually said that, and then she went back to the others.

Nepeta was just coming back from her phone call.

"Oh, hi Karkitty." She shrugged.

"How are mew?"

She made small talk.  
Where was this coming from all of a sudden?

"Why did you keep leaving me with Terezi today?"

She paused, staring at me, shocked, as if her actions weren't completely obvious.

"And what the actual fuck is this?" I demanded.

"We've been friends ever since you showed up in April, and now, out of nowhere, you're acting like a prick, pretending like I dislike your cat puns, and making goddamn small talk! What the fuck is all this douchebaggery?"

"I-I thought…" She looked at me, frozen.

"What? What did you think?"

"It's not easy for me to purrtend, okay?" She said, hanging her head.

She sounded like she honestly thought I knew what she was talking about.

"…Pretend, _what?" _I demanded.

"

You wouldn't understa—"

"Explain it to me."

There was another long pause, of her just looking at me with those bright green, sad looking eyes, she looked absolutely beautiful with the pink sky shining down on her, as the sun got closer to setting.

"Karkitty, I…" She started.

"I…"

She took a deep, shaky, breath, whatever she was trying to say to me was clearly hard for her to say.

"I… _like_ mew…I liked mew… ever since the first time we locked eyes on that first day of school when I was standing in front of the class introducing myself. I thought mew were cute, but then when we started talking….I realized, mew were more than that… you are pawsitively purrfect in everfurry way, I like how serious mew are. I like how mew like to come across as tough, but in reality, you're incredibly shy, I like your creative vocabulary, and how mew use it… it's almost poetic, even if mew are only insulting people…I like how you're such a hopeless romantic underneath that tough exterior you purrsent to everyone… I love everything about mew, and it just… _hurts."_

As she said all that, I could hear tears in her voice, her throat knotting up, but no actual tears came, just a brave, sad smile spread across her face, and those bright green eyes continuously locked with mine.

"It's hard for me to purrtend, that everfurry thing is okay with us, when everfurry time you look at Terezi, your… your eyes just light up… and yet, mew never admit your feelings to her, mew leave her in the dark, and when mew do that, I start to furrget, I start to furrget that I don't have a chance with mew, and then, when I'm reminded again, reminded that I'm just kitten myself, it hurts so much…it just—I ditched mew with Terezi today because I thought… I… thought…that if mew and Terezi finally got together I'd be able to stop purrtending I had a chance, and I'd be able to move on, but you won't! Mew keep getting my hopes up, only to crush them again, and it's just so….furstrating!"

She took a deep breath, trying as hard as she could to keep herself from crying.

"Nepeta…" I started slowly.

"Yes, Karkitty…?" She sounded weak, like she expected to be shot down.

"…You're a fucking idiot." I retorted.

"Terezi and I are ancient history, I liked her, back in the day…but, I _never, _liked her the way that I was supposed to, I realize now that back then, it was just my young hopeless romantic heart striving to fall in love, when I wasn't even fucking close to being ready, but _you! _ You make me question myself, and spend hours cursing myself for feeling the way I do… you make me act like a complete and utter moron, a complete and utter _disdainful fucking moron._ These last few months I've been racking my incompetent, dumbfuck of a brain, asking myself what was making me act like this, why I'd suddenly become such a fuck up, and then I realized, that this feeling that was making me question myself so much, was the feeling I'd been pursuing all along…Nepeta, I'm head over fucking heels, but… not for Terezi."

I stopped, after spouting out the most stupid, and yet probably the most romantic things I've ever said out loud.  
She looked at me, completely shocked, as if she never imagined this ever happening.  
It was a perfect, almost unreal seen, the two of us standing on the beach together, the sun setting .

I met eyes with her again, her eyes were so full of hope, an expression that she hadn't worn just a minute earlier.

"I like _you." _I finished my sentence.

There was another pause before she got closer to me, I put one hand against her cheek, and gently leaned in.

And with the cool summer breeze blowing through our hair, I kissed her, I kissed Nepeta Leijon for the first time.

_**A/N: HELLO HELLO HELLOOOOOOO~  
I finally did it. On chapter 13~ it took 13 chapters of relationship building and tension but I got us here, doesn't it feel better, and so much more fulfilling that we waited so long to get this far?  
So yeah! This was an extremely eventful chapter. And I've been waiting to write this scene since the very beginning. The confession scene is one of the first scenes I thought up, and it's part of what drove the story.  
I want to dedicate this chapter to my best friend, who's been having a rough time as of lately.  
She was the one who influenced me into entering the Homestuck fandom.  
Basically, she just wouldn't shut up about it, so out of the blue, I decided to read it, to keep up with her, expecting to hate it, but ended up falling in love with it.  
She also introduced me to Erisol, which is now one of my top three ships. **_  
**_I love you bby~ hehe~ c;  
We'll see each other soon and we'll watch anime~! w  
As for the rest of you, thank you for reading. And follow and/or review if you can. /Much/ more to come in the future._**

But until then,

~Raiden  



	14. Cliches

That night, everything seemingly fell into place, the confessions were just like ones straight out of the fucking movies I let myself obsess over, the kiss was perfect, lasted the perfect amount of time, it was soft and sweet, and just everything I ever wanted it to be.

Afterwards the two of us returned to the group, and sat in the sand around the campfire with everyone else, trying to keep our situation from looking too obvious, but in the end someone who had witnessed the kiss came out, demanding to know if we were "together or something", which spawned an argument between Sollux and Terezi.

Sollux, who argued that Terezi had to pay up, and Terezi, who argued that she _let _him win by encouraging me to confess to her.

I was flustered that our new-found relationship was so quickly out in the open.

Nepeta and I sat together on the bus ride home, and she dozed off slightly, with her head up against my shoulder, as the both of us _were_ overly tired from the drawn out first day of summer vacation.

Once I got home, I got into bed, without even going on the internet to see what I'd missed all day, nope, I went straight to bed, feeling completely and utterly exhausted.

But as soon as my head hit the pillow, my brain, like the douchebag it was flipped on like a fucking switch, and after hours of thinking I came to a serious conclusion.

_I had no fucking idea how to be a boyfriend._

. . . . 

I felt something nudge me, without even thinking through, or questioning the nudging, I looked over my covers, and realized that even though I'd fucking _closed _the window shades the night before, that they'd somehow managed to uncover themselves, and the light was now advancing it's way into my room at… whatever o clock in the fucking morning.

"No, fuck you." I grumbled under my breath, not talking to anything in particular, maybe it was the day itself I was talking to.

I'd at least been able to get a few hours of sleep, which, I hadn't thought previously was something I could handle after last night's events.

_Last night's events._

Fuck.__

Nepeta was my girlfriend now, wasn't she?

_Oh god, oh god, oh god, stop fucking thinking about it. If you think about it, you'll never fall back asleep.  
_  
I peeked over my covers again, and winced, the light was letting itself more and more into my room.

I groaned out loud, and threw the covers over my head, curling up, letting the closeness and darkness of my comforter consume me.

Ha.  
Fuck you daylight.

"Ha, see? Even I can manage to escape this screaming shithole of a morning."

"Best friend, are you talking to your blanket?"

With that unexpected voice, I screamed. More femininely than I can ever be proud of.

Even though I could easily tell who it was in my room if I calmed myself down and thought it through, but I had a habit of letting my actions take over before I could even enter the thinking process.

By pure reflex, I threw the blanket forward, kicking whoever was in front of me as hard as I could, sending them forward.

"Man, that all up in motherfucking hurt, ya know?"

Gamzee sat up on my floor, tossing my blanket off himself, rubbing his head disapprovingly.

"You know if ya weren't so up and motherfucking tense all the time, maybe you wouldn't always be kicking a brother around."

I sighed, flopping onto my back, taking a deep breath.

"Maybe if my lackadaisical nimfuck of a best friend didn't come fucking marching into my house early in the morning without any sort of warning, he wouldn't get kicked in the fucking face as often, and _I _wouldn't have trust issues." I retorted.

Gamzee casually laid back on my bedroom floor.

"Bro, you just gotta learn to let these things go, it's just how the motherfucking world works." He sighed, honest to god, seeming as if he believed the horseshit that constantly spouted itself out of his mouth.

I rolled over on my bed, letting my face bury into in the sheets, grumbling quietly to myself, before turning back around and facing Gamzee.

"Gamzee, I barely slept a wink last night, and I'd appreciate it if you moved your sweet clownass out of my fucking house so I can sleep for the majority of the day." I yanked my comforter off the ground with that statement, and hid myself underneath it, hoping he would just leave without protest, but knowing he wouldn't.

"But, um… best friend?"

"What, Gamzee… just… _what?" _

"What about motherfucking school? Are you planning on skippin' out?"

I went silent for a moment, I realized he was constantly high, but every once in awhile I found myself being shocked by his utter stupidity anyway.

"In case you didn't fucking know this, asshole, school is _out!" _ I snapped.

"As of yesterday, it is summer vacation, so do me a favor, okay?"

"Yeah, sure man. Anything." Gamzee nodded.

"…Okay, here's the favor, and I want you to listen very carefully." I told him.

"…Get…the _flaming fuck _out of my house."

It took Gamzee a few seconds to realize it actually _was _summer now.

"Aw, man, you're right. Yesterday _was_ the end of school field trip! You had me all up and motherfucking confused for a fuckin' second there."

"Yes, now, Gamzee, get _out." _

"But—"

"_Out." _

I heard him lingering about the house for another five minutes but I eventually heard the door shut, loudly.

Well, thanks to my fucktard of a best friend, I was now fully awake, and laying under my blankets shielding myself from the sun was doing absolutely nothing.

I had let my mind wander by the main subject at hand.

The fact that I'd let myself like Nepeta as much as I did, and even let myself go as far as to confess to her, but I didn't know the slightest fucking bit how to be a boyfriend.

I'd watched romcoms and read novels on the matter of romance, and I always thought it would be just like that if I ever fell in love. But I realized, to my dismay, I wasn't like any of the charming main protagonists of a love story.

I would have _liked _to be like them**.**

Fuck _yes, _I would _love _to be like nearly any main protagonist.

But I wasn't smooth talking, I wasn't stoic and cool as shit, I was just…me.

After contemplating for what seemed forever, I finally did the one thing I never thought I'd have to resort to doing.  
I picked up my phone, and I called the last person I'd expected to call that day.

_Eridan Ampora. _

It was nearly 12:00 in the afternoon so he had to be awake at this point.

I expected a few rings to go by, but to what always seemed like it shouldn't have been a surprise, the blithering douchebag picked up after _one fucking ring._

"W-what is the meanin' a'this?! Callin' me so early in the day, my _cod, _don't you fuckin know that some people are still tryin to sleep at this hour?!"

I moved the phone away from my ear, fucking wincing at the bastard's loud voice, screaming bloody murder over the line.

"Jesus _fuck,_ Ampora can you drop your douchey dumbfucking shitspewing act for one fucking second?" I cut him right off, as he continued to blab on and on about beauty sleep or something.

"Oh… Kar, I didn't know it w-was you, sorry about that." He sighed, sounding more relaxed.

"Ever heard of caller ID you whimsical douchefuck?" I hissed, making my agitated state clearly obvious.

"W-well to be completely fuckin honest I thought it w-was going to be Cronus…" Eridan admitted sheepishly, his nervous stutter fully present.

Cronus… right.  
Cronus was Eridan's older, more douchey brother.  
And not to mention our one connection to each other.

Cronus had been friends with my brother, Kankri, since middleschool and was now his college roommate.

So I'd been officially introduced to Eridan as his brother's friend's brother.

Yeah, it was _that _type of friendship if you could call it a friendship in the first place.  
It was more of a mutual respect.

Eridan was a desperate, whiny asshole, but I didn't go after him for it, in fact I listened to his problems more than his "best friend" Feferi could ever stand.

And he put up with my ranting and shouting.  
Yeah, so… more of a respect.

"Right." I shrugged, casually sitting down on my floor as I continued to speak to him over the phone.

"So Cronus is out college for the summer?"

"W-well, duh…! You should know, your brother is out as of today as well, you know."

It was common knowledge that Kankri and I were not on speaking terms, but every once in awhile someone without thinking would mention him as if we were all okay, forgetting how things were.

"Oh… right…you two still aren't speakin', then?"

"No." I answered, clearly annoyed.

"We're not."

There was a silence over the line for a second before he chipped in again, changing the subject.

"So, um… Kar, w-what is your reason for callin me exactly? To be honest I'm a little surprised, I usually am the one to go off and call _you,_ not vice versa."

"Well… it's about Nepeta…" I started slowly.

"Nep…?" He inquired.

"Did you finally tell her how you feel, then?"

Jesus fucking Christ, did everyone know about my crush on her?

"Actually, yeah…." I said, slowly.

"W-well… that's great…?" He added, still confused as to why I'd called him.

Silence.

Then suddenly, I spilled it.

I spilled it all.

"Fuck, I just—I really, _really _like her, and I wanna do it right, I want everything to be just fucking perfect, but I don't know what to do!"

I went on and on, about random bullshit about how I don't know how to be her boyfriend and so on, and Eridan, surprisingly out of character, listened to me.

"Look, Kar. W-what the fuck have you been tellin me _all these years?" _He started.

"You just have to be yourself, Nep doesn't _want _you to be one of those assholes from your movies, she fell in love with _you _remember? W-why don't you just do all those things you've been going on about for years on end? Like… go on those silly old fashioned diner, type dates, or climb into the tunnel at the playground and write each other's names there in sharpie proclaiming your love to each other? You're going so fuckin crazy over this girl that you've suddenly forgotten all the things you wanted to do?"

I realized, he was right.

There was so much I'd always dreamed of doing.  
I wanted to go on those cliché diner dates, or go on picnics in the park, and act like stupid, childish middleschoolers hanging out at the playground, and I even wanted to go as far as to attempt the spider kiss from that Spiderman movie.

"You know what, Ampora…? Thanks, I… I have to go, okay?"

And with that, I hung up, and threw on a pair of jeans and a better tee-shirt.

I looked in the mirror, quickly putting on my contacts, and realizing that I'd have to get a new dye-job soon.

I ran out my door, heading right to Nepeta's house, half a mile away.

I took a deep breath, trying to get up the guts to knock on her door, and then I realized—how fucking _lame _is it to knock on a girl's door?

I ran around to the back yard of her house, to find her bedroom window, picking up pebbles from the ground, and using one of the biggest clichés in the fucking book, I threw them at her window.

It took her a minute to peek out her window.  
She shook her head, laughing a little before she opened it up.

"Karkitty?" She giggled, clearly amused.

"What in the evfur loving world are mew doing?"

"Being _fucking_ spontaneous, goddammit!" I replied.

"Oh really?" She laughed a bit more.

"Do you want me to come down—"

"No!" I cut her off.

"Stay up there, it's so much more romantic that way!"

She nodded a little, understanding my need to reenact silly love scenes.

"You're really silly sometimes, mew know that, right?" She asked, resting her elbows on the window sill, peering down at me.

"I know, I have a stupid need to try and reenact romcoms and any romantic scenes I can come up with, that's just how I am, and that's how I'll continue to be, you know that, right?"

A small smile crossed her lips.

"Yep, I know…I love your quirks, I like you how you are, if I didn't, I would have fallen in lo—I mean, started to like mew as much as I do."

I let a small, rare smile cross my face.

"Let's do it, then."

"Do…what…?"

"No, no! Fucking hell, not that…I mean…" I sighed, trying to clear my head.

"Let's reenact every cliché we can, let's do every single crazy thing you've wanted to do, things that I've wanted to do…you know…"

She nodded a little.

"So you mean… mew want to have the purrfect, cliché summer romance any hopeless romantic dreams of?" She asked.

"…Basically." I nodded.

"Well, then." She agreed.

"We'd better not purrcrastinate, right?"

That was where it began—the perfect summer romance that I'd always dreamed of.

The one I wouldn't dream of ever taking back, no matter what the ending result was.

**_A/N: Oh my god I /finally/ got this done. Sorry for taking such a long time to update, it was only a little over a week, but still.  
I've been super busy this week, I attended a gay pride festival with my best friend, and I'm at the library right now as i write this because I ditched my house. ^^;;  
But yeah~! I shall update soon~ Until then, review and follow if you have the time~!_**

-Raiden 

__


	15. This Ship Sails Itself

The next day Nepeta and I set off on a romantic quest, we skipped all the "purrcrastinating" as she would put it.

The sun was fucking beating down on us, it really _was _summer.

Fuck.  
The fact that it was summer reminded me that I hated summer, almost as much as I hated the other seasons.  
Winter was too cold and summer was too hot, and spring… well, it rained too much, so your shoes got all muddy.

So basically the only respectable season was Autumn.

So why didn't kids have summer vacation in autumn instead?

Why couldn't we have one hundred and four days of _Autumn _Vacation?

That would make a lot more fucking sense.

One good thing about the whole summer situation was Nepeta looked cute as a motherfucker in her summer clothes.

A green and white striped spaghetti strapped shirt, and blue shorts that floated a few inches above her knees.  
Instead of those trashy flip flops like other girls wore, she wore black flats.

To pull it all off, she had her brown caramel wavy hair all scrunched up into pigtails.  
_Fucking pigtails._

How the fuck do things get cuter than that?

"Karkitty, where are mew taking me?" She shook her head, latching onto my arm with her own, a skip in her step.

She seemed way more genuinely happy to be with me than Terezi ever did during the short time we dated.

I shrugged.

"Were mew serious about the playground thing?" She laughed.

"W-well… yeah, okay? I sort of am."

"What are we going to do at a playground?" She asked.

"I dunno," I groaned.

"I just thought we could do that romantic thing where couples lay on the merry-go-round and share earbuds and shit." I muttered the last bit of it.

She shook her head at me.

"How many romcoms have mew _watched?" _

"I-I…"

She nudged me in the side, with her elbow lightly.

"I'm just kitten mew, I think it's cute, purrcious, even."

My face heated up a bit, I didn't like putting up with people calling me cute, whenever Terezi did that, I felt the instant urge to correct her, but with Nepeta at the very least it felt more natural.

"Karkitty, you act like mew have never been called cute befur." She informed.

"No, that's not it, I've been called it before…" I groaned.

"Too many fucking times, I just usually correct it."

"How come mew didn't correct me, then?"

Once again I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing how to respond.

"I don't fucking know, I just didn't feel like it, okay?"

I could swear I felt my face turning red again.

I swear to fucking god, I felt like I wasn't even in control of myself anymore.

She let go of my arm, and stepped in front of me, forcing me to stop in my tracks and she tilted her head, studying my expression.

She smiled happily, and poked my cheek.

"Your face is red." She giggled.

"No! Fuck you, it's not."

"…"fuck mew"…?" She smiled mischievously.

"Don't mew think it's a little early in the relationship for _that,_ Karkitty?"

My eyes widened, and my face turned even redder this time around.

Jesus fucking Christ, this chick really knew how to make me tick.

I was like her fucking puppet.

She smiled again, sighing.

"Karkitty, you're way too easy, couldn't mew at least try a little harder?" She teased.

"S-shut the fuck up, all right?"

She jokingly put her hands up in defeat.

"Okay, okay."

She grabbed me by the wrist and started pulling me down the sidewalk.

"Come on, we're almost there!"

"Ack—"

She continued to pull me, as was half-running, so I was basically getting dragged, until we stopped outside the gates of the playground.

The playground, which just so happened to be filled with crazed elementary schoolers.

This certain elementary school playground was the same playground _I _used to play on with Sollux and Gamzee back when the three of us were elementary schoolers.

So, these little fuckers didn't know it yet… but… this was _my _playground.

I fucking _owned _it, goddammit.  
I was the fucking god of this playground, and these little nose-picking brainless fuckfaces were now _my _subjects.

"Should we leave and wait for the kids to clear out?" Nepeta asked, tugging at my sleeve and breaking me away from my train of god-like thought.

"No," I answered smugly.

"You don't _understand_, this playground is _my_ land, and these motherfuckers are trespassing."

Nepeta looked half confused, half amused.

"What?"

I pointed at the school building that owned the playground.

"This used to be my school." I informed her.

"Gamzee, Sollux, and I used to be school mates _here, _and we had thirty minutes of recess every single fucking day, and during that time, well, it was _our _playground, we kind of ruled it, you know?"

Nepeta laughed a little at this.

"I think all little kids think they rule the playground, Karkitty." She told me.

"You know those castle-like club houses that are attached to some playgrounds? Well, when my best friend Equius and I were in elementary school together, he was absolutely _pawsitive _that he and I genuinely owned that part of the playground. That was _our _club house, and anyone that even _tried _to get near it, we chased away, I think every little kid has a little complex when it comes to their playground, it doesn't make it true."

"Maybe it wasn't true for you and your douche friend, but _I _really do own the playground, and not just the fucking club house part of it, _the whole fuckload of it." _

"Prove it." Nepeta grinned.

I nodded, and I marched right through that gate, Nepeta trailing behind me.

"Hey, all you _fuckers!" _I shouted to get the attention of the little kids.

"Why don't you take all your repulsive apeshit that you call "playing" to another area in town, because I think you were misinformed."

There was silence for a moment before one brave little kid spoke up.

"Misinformed on what exactly?" He demanded.

"On the fact that this is _my _fucking playground, I literally own it, I am the _god _of it, and so that means you have to listen to me when I say, get the fuck out." I retorted.

A little girl spoke up.

"Nu uh! My daddy helped _design _this playground back when my older brother went to school here, and he never said _anything _about a god who rules the playground, you're a poser!"

All the other kids started siding with the little girl.

"Well, your "daddy" was misinformed too, then." I told her.

"No one was misinformed." Another kid spoke up.

"You're just a loser, you're trying to trick us, right?"

"I am _far _from a loser, you vomit-inducing crotchstain, I am your _god_ and you should treat me as such if you plan on continuing to use _my_ playground."

"You're lying!"

At that, an uproar of kids started shouting at me, and I looked back at Nepeta, who had a sheepish grin on her face, trying not to laugh at my useless attempts.

The shouting continued for another few seconds, before Nepeta cut them off.

"Hey, hey, hey!" She shouted to get their attention.

"How about mew all hit pawse on the shouting for a minute."

They all shut up, most likely captivated by her weird cat puns.

"You may not believe that _this _nimrod is a god, but _I _am. And I can prove it."

"You can?" The kids seemed way more intrigued with her than they ever were with me.

"

Yup," she started digging through the pockets of her shorts until she pulled out a quarter.

She held it out to the kids showing it to them, before closing her hands and mixing it between the two of them.

"Now, how many of mew think it's in my right hand?"

About half raised their hands.

"And how many of mew think it's in my left?"  
The other half raised their hands, except for one kid, who crossed his arms, suspicious.

"Where do _mew _think it is?" She asked him.

"In your pocket." He said, smug.

Nepeta opened her hands to reveal that it wasn't in either her left or right.

And she pulled out both her pockets revealing there was nothing there.

"Then, where is it?" One of the kids asked.

Nepeta knelt down to the size of the kids, and got close to the one kid who had been suspicious.

She reached behind the kid's ear, and pulled it out.

"Here it is." She placed it in the little kid's hands, who looked totally in awe.

"It was in his ear?!" A little girl demanded in awe.

"How'd you do it?"

"I told mew." Nepeta smiled smugly, bowing a bit.

"I'm a god, I used my _mind _to put it there, that's all it takes."

The kids groaned, defeated.

"Does this mean we have to _leave?" _

Nepeta shook her head.

"Nah, mew don't _have _to." She said.

I glared at her.  
We had them defeated and she was just going to let them stay anyway?

She waved me off.

"Mew all can stay on _one _condition."

. . . .

"How much longer do we have to do this?" One of the kids groaned out loud.

"As long as it takes." Nepeta chanted cheerfully.

Nepeta and I each laid in a section of the playground's colorful merry-go-round, as about five of the kids helped each other to spin us around.  
Nepeta were in different sections, which were side by side, so we weren't painfully close, but we were close enough for us to share earbuds are my ipod played random love songs.

She smiled brightly, turning on her side to look at me.

"What do mew think, Karkitty? Have they spun us for long enough to deserve a break?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, all right. Let the repulsive little shitstains off the hook."

"Okay evefurry one, the gods of the playground are now satisfied, mew can all stop the spinning, and go on playing." She stood up, in the center of the merry-go-round announcing, as if she was freeing them from some sort of slavery.

The kids cheered, and they ran off to join the rest of their group on the other side of the playground.

Nepeta smiled softly, shaking her head ever so slightly, before ducking under the railings to climb into my section of the merry-go-round, which was still spinning ever so slightly.

She laid back down, only this time we were sharing a section.  
We hadn't been this close together since we kissed on the beach, two days before.

She curled up, laying her head on my shoulder, and grabbing my hand, guiding my arm so that it would be around her shoulders.

"Well, then Mr. "god of the playground" are mew satisfied with the results of your new loyal subjects?" She teased.

"Technically they're _your _fucking subjects." I admitted defeat.

"I'll bet anything that you learned that super lame trick from that whimsical douche, Egbert, from school."

"Well then I guess mew owe me something beclaws you're wrong." She informed, proud of herself.

"So you're trying to tell me there's another douche out there dumb enough to pull a lame trick like that?" I demanded.

She sighed.

"When I was little, whenever I was upset, my best friend Equius would try anything to get me to stop crying," she started.

"He always hated it when I was upset, so he would do silly things, like steal my cat ears, and give himself silly nicknames, and sometimes he would use that stupid magic trick on me, lame as it is, I was always stumped when he did it, it worked like a charm, I was so busy trying to figure out how he did it, that I completely furgot whatevefur was making me upset."

"That is sickeningly adorable." I said, turning on my side to look at her, turning off the music so that she could have my full attention.

"So, who's this _Equius?" _I demanded.

"You've mentioned the kringlefucking douche twice now, and I'm still unsure who he really is."

"Hm." She closed her eyes, cuddling up closer to me.

"Equius is my best friend, as I've told mew. I went to school with him for five straight years befur my mom and I had to move, I talk to him on the phone every night, and we constantly text, and evefurry summer vacation since I've moved away, I've taken a plane to go see him."

"So… you moved away from him, and then moved_ again_ June of this year? That must be pretty fucking tough." I said.

"Oh no, this is my _tenth _move." Nepeta informed, not seeming the least bit bothered by it.

"My mom has to move us around a lot because of her job, I went through a phase where I was furrious about our situation, but it's long passed that time, since then I've decided to be pawsitive, it's an adventure, mew know?"

I blinked.

"So… what's the longest amount of time you've stayed in a steady home environment?" I questioned.

"Five years, when I was a little kid, back when I went to school with Equius, that still holds the record of the longest I've ever stayed in one place." She told me.

"What kind of heinous bullshit is that?" I grumbled.

"That can't be fucking good for you, a kid needs a stable environment."

Nepeta shrugged her shoulders, grinning.

"Like I told mew, to me it feels like an adventure."

Silence.

"So…" I said softly.

"Do you even know how fucking long you're going to be sticking around _here?" _

"Don't worry, Karkitty." She snuggled up to me, nuzzling my cheek.

"It's steady right now, don't fret your purrcious head."

I crossed my arms, grumbling something along the lines of not liking to be referred to as precious.

She pecked me on the cheek, quickly, giggling before sitting up, and stepping of the now still merry-go-round.

My face quickly heated up again.

I sat up, looking at her, opening my mouth to say something, but then being able to come up with nothing.

"Come on, silly!" She called, jumping back onto the merry-go-round, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet.

She dragged me onto the mulch-covered ground, before racing off, climbing up the ladder, ditching me, as she climbed up on the playground equipment.

"Nepeta!" I whined.

"Catch me if mew can~" She teased.

"Oh, like hell I'll catch you." I said, and quickly took off right after her, climbing up the ladder, onto the equipment, and crawling right into the red tunnel, which was up high in the center of the playground.

"Okay, you fucking got me up here, what are we doing?" I stopped, sitting next to her.

"Here." She said, handing me a black permanent marker, as she held a bright green one.

I stared at her blankly, wondering if she could read my mind.

"Write your name, dummy!" She pushed, happily, seemingly amused by my awe.

I wrote my name down.

And a few inches below she wrote her own name, in her green marker, in her cute, curvy hand writing, and then added an "x" in between the two names.

We glanced at each other for a moment, with a sense of fulfillment in the moment.

I guess it wasn't just me who wanted to feel like a fucking little kid, being all happy go lucky, and declaring your love on the playground.

Nepeta looked as if she got another idea, and she scribbled down a sentence underneath our names.

The two of us, turned around to face each other completely, and I felt a smile cross my lips, which was rare.  
I hardly ever smiled, not when others were looking.

Nepeta looked pleased with herself, having managed to get a smile out of me.

With our all-powerful sharpie markers, we had permanently engraved

**Karkat  
x  
Nepeta**  
**(this ship sails ****_itself!)_**

Well, okay.  
Not fucking permanently, obviously.  
But it would be there for as long it would take to wear off.

But when that happened, I was sure we'd be back to re-declare out relationship, as many times as it would take.

**A/N: I'm baaaaaaaack. OwO**  
**Did you guys miss me? I had a lot of fun with this chapter, because this is like, my idea of a cute first date.**  
**Though on /my/ date, we'd swing on the swings too, I just didn't have the time to add that.**  
**I'm getting close to eighty followers, guys, and that was my new goal after I'd reached 50! So I'm really happy.**  
**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I've got /much/ more to come, follow and/or review if you have the time! Until next time, stay awesome, guys.**


	16. Just An Excuse To Make Out

"Come on, man, loothen the fuck up." Sollux teased, looking up from his laptop.

The two of us sat on his bedroom floor, both laptops plugged into his wall, sitting across from each other.  
Sollux was typing away, and yet was still managing to talk to me at the same time, accustomed to multi-tasking.

"No, you _tense _the fuck up for half a second, and think about what you're asking me to do." I rolled my eyes, having to look away from my tumblr dash.

"C'mon KK, it'th jutht _one _party, and we don't even have to thtay for long." He insisted.

"Look who's talking, douchebag. _You're _the most antisocial person I know, and suddenly you're fucking begging me to go to a party with you? Who are you?" I mocked, peering down at my computer.

"Thays the pthycho big-mouthed thociopath." Sollux retorted, shutting his laptop, setting it on the floor beside him, so he could put his full attention on me.

"What the fuck ith your ithue with parties, anyway?"

I sighed, the fact that Sollux fucking Captor shut _his _laptop meant that I was going to have to as well.  
I set it aside, and ran my fingers through my hair.

"What issues _don't _I have with parties? They're boring as fucking hell, and no one likes them. And the people who claim they do, secretly hate them more than the people who are open about it." I informed.

Sollux groaned.

"Come on, I can't thow up on my own, I'll look like a goddamn lother."

"What the fuck is this to you, a date?" I teased, bitterly.

"If you want a fucking date, ask that shameful fuckrod Ampora to go with you."

Sollux muttered something under his breath, crossing his arms.

"I can't ask Eridan to hang out with me _directly, _athhole. Bethides, I'd look like even _more _of a lother if I thowed up with _him, _these are people from our highthchool KK, everyone there knowth he's a prick."

I rolled my eyes.  
And this was the same guy who gave a dramatic confession about how he secretly _liked_ Ampora, a little more than a fucking week ago?

"I thought you _liked _Eridan, if you like him you shouldn't give a fuck that the guy is a fuckbagging pain in the ass."

"Thut up! I told you we're not going to talk about this thit, I was being thtupid, okay?" He defended himself.

"You're defending yourself in a fashion that makes me really fucking disbelieve what you're saying." I told him.

"Tho what if I am? It's none of your beethwax how I treat ED, jutht drop the thubject."

"Whatever. Douchefuck." I added the insult, as a last minute thought on the matter.

"I know you can't thee pathed my thhades KK, tho I'm going to let you in on the fact that I'm rolling my fucking eyeth."

I picked back up my laptop off the floor, ready to go scrolling back through my dash, when Sollux opened his mouth again.

"KK… _pleathe." _ He groaned.

"Ugh… but no one ever has fun at those parties! You're better off just fucking off, and staying home, anyway."

He kept looking at me, trying to smolder me into saying yes.

"The only fucking reason you want to go is because _you _have the fucking potential to become popular at _any time _at our school, but look at me! I'm fucking infamous! There's no goddamn chance in the whole world that I'd ever be popular in a _positive way. _I'm lucky that I'm a fucking _respected _infamous figure." I went on.

"KK," he tried to grab hold of my attention.

"C'mon man, I don't wanna thow up there alone!" He was starting to repeat himself.

"I think I've _heard _this story before, you blundering dunderfuck." I informed, agitated.

"If you do thith, I'll offithially owe you a favor." He said, adding bonus points to his begging.

"You can even bring Nepeta! Come on, the'll have fun!"

"You're getting more desperate by the fucking minute." I told him.

I'd spoken too soon, because I looked up, mid sentence, and saw him taking out his cellphone.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"Calling your fucking girlfriend, it'th come to thith."He told me, looking as if he was holding back a smirk.

"Oh you think you're so fucking smart, don't—"

"Thhh. It's on speaker phone."

"Give me the goddamn phone, Sollux."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Hello?" I heard Nepeta's voice, she was giggling as if she heard some of that.

"Thup Nepeta, it's Tholluxth." He informed.

"I know, I have caller ID." I could tell she was smiling.

"Is Karkitty with you? I'm pawstive I heard him shouting as if he were furrious with mew."

"Yeth he's here, and we're on thpeaker phone. Thay hello, Duthwad."

I groaned, annoyed.

"Hello, Nepeta." I greeted her half-assedly, not because I was unhappy to speak to her, but because of what I _knew _Sollux was going to ask her.

She laughed a little.

"Karkitty sounds mad~! What'd mew do to him, Sollux?"

"Oh, nothing, thee, I was thinking, that maybe you'd want to go to Vrithka's party with me tonight, and maybe even convinthe KK to tag along."

"This sounds like purrhaps it's trap." She informed.

"Karkitty doesn't want to go, am I right? And mew are being purrsistant, and trying to get _me _to say yes first so he'll purresured to go as well."

"Well, you're jutht as thmart ath you are adorable." Sollux added, nervously.

"Don't try to flatter me," Nepeta laughed.

"Of course I'll go, if Karkitty wants to stay home and furret about it, that's _his _loss."

I was going to have to go to this party, wasn't I?

"Fine, I'll fucking go! But I'll hate every single fucking second, you dickmongering shitholes."

"Cool~ I'll call Gamzee and Eridan and that will be evefurryone. Meet me at my house around 7:00, okay, Karkitty?" She inquired, and without another word she hung up.

"No, don't invite ED, are you fucking—"

She was gone before he could voice his protest.

Looks like the infamous dorks of the school were going to infiltrate a popular chick's party.

Fucking _lovely. _

. . . .

"I don't see why you're indirectly forcing me to go to this party." I grumbled, as I walked down the sidewalk, Nepeta by my side, as the two of us walked from her house, making our way to Vriska's.

"I'm not _forcing _mew, silly. Don't furget, mew accepted this on your own accord." She laughed a little.

"No, don't bullshit me with that! You and Sollux fucking pressured me into doing this." I informed.

"Did we?" She teased.

"Well, purrhaps it's your fault for falling for it."

I could hear music blasting, which meant we were getting close to the party.

"Come on, Karkitty, don't be such a downer, if we're not feelin' the party the two of us can bail, and go play video games at your place, okay?"

Before I could agree, she grabbed hold of my hand, dragging me.

"Come on, let's go!"

My face heated up immensely when her intertwined her fingers with mine, pulling me forward.

It was nothing new, but I still managed to be flustered every time.

"Uh, hi guys…I didn't think that, uh… Vriska was expecting you." Tavros greeted the two of us at the door, looking a bit overwhelmed by the whole party thing.

"Hi Tavros!" Nepeta greeted him with a smile and a small wave.

"Oh, hi Nepeta." He smiled a bit shyly.

"I never imagined big parties like this were your kind of scene." He said, nervously.

"I could say the same fucking thing about you." I retorted.

"Oh, uh… they're not." He admitted sheepishly.

"But Vriska likes me to help host them and all that, and… well, it's hard to say no to her."

Nepeta nodded a little, she was obviously way more into this conversation than me.

"Okay, well, don't let that bossy-boots push mew around, okay?" She smiled sweetly.

Tavros nodded.

"Okay, thanks Nepeta, I won't."

"Purrfect~" She nodded.

She waved to Tavros and we entered the house the rest of the way, leaving Tavros to greet other people.  
Everyone felt a bit sorry for Tavros, he was obviously way more into Vriska than she was into him, in fact no one was sure if she even really liked him.  
And the relationship wasn't exactly a functional one.

"Well, look who actually thowed up." Sollux waved a little, seeming impressed.

"Well, we _did _say we were both coming, you know." She informed.

"Yeth, but I didn't think KK would hold himthelf to it."

"I _shouldn't _have, this place fucking blows."

"Oh, c'mon Karkles~ it's summer!" Terezi chipped in out of nowhere.

"Jesus fuck—" I cut myself off, startled.

She laughed a little, showing off her interesting laugh.

"_I'm _the blind one, and yet, I always manage to startle you."

"Shut the fuck up."

She stuck her tongue out at me, jokingly.

"Come on Karkat, don't be so tense!" She slipped an arm around my shoulders.

"We're gonna play seven minutes in heaven, even Ampora here, is gonna get some."

Eridan looked indignant.

"I've fallen for this one before! You're goin' to fuckin' leave me blindfolded in the closet for half an hour! W-well… not _this _time, I'm sittin' it out!"

"I am too, there's no fucking way I'm gonna play that game, and no one else will either, it's for fucking desperate kids with wild hormones and no date." I informed.

"Oh c'mon! Even _I'm _gonna play!" Terezi told me.

"Yeah, well call me a pretentious wuss all you want, but there's not fucking way I'm getting in that closet!" I retorted.

"KK, are you therious, don't be such a drag." Sollux grumbled.

"Oh don't be such a douche, you hypocrite! Eighth grade, party of the year, I remember a certain fucking Captor sitting out on Seven minutes in heaven!" I threw that back in his face.

"That'th becauthe back then, I wath dating Arad—" He cut himself right off before he could say her name out loud.

I could have sworn this was the first time in the year even a little bit of her name slipped from someone's mouth.

Sollux shut up completely after that, not arguing with me over the stupid game anymore.

Between our little group things went silent for a little bit, our of seer awkwardness of the bring-up of Sollux's dead ex-girlfriend.

Way to be a fucking downer.

"Okay guys!" Vriska called out, trying to get the attention of everyone.

"Feferi's in the closet, who wants to take up that opportunity and play the first round of the game?"

Eridan instantly tried to step forward, only to be knocked back by Sollux.

"Not tho fast, duthefuck." Sollux exclaimed, knocking him back.

_"I'll _go in after Feferi."

Eridan looked immensely disappointed as Sollux made his way to where Feferi was blindfolded in the closet waiting for him.

"W-wait…! Aren't w-we supposed to draw names or somethin'? Sol can't just _decide_ to go in after her." Eridan protested.

"That's not how we're playing this time, fishfuck." Vriska informed.

"In this version I'll send someone in, and then announce it, and whoever has the guts goes in after him or her, end of story."

Eridan crossed his arms, and sat down on the couch, as Sollux disappeared into the closet.

I turned to Nepeta who was sitting on the couch next to the sulking Eridan.

"See? This is all idiotic horseshit! Can we leave?"

"No!" She pouted.

"Karkitty, _please… _stop whining and maybe try to have some fun?"

I groaned, sitting down between Eridan and Nepeta.

She locked her arm around mine.

"Mew are so cute when you're grumpy~." She told me.

"I'm _always _grumpy."

"I know."

She giggled, poking my cheek when once again they flushed over red.

"You are _way _too easy, you know that right?" She asked, pecking me on the forehead.

"Spin the bottle, anyone?" Terezi asked, wrestling a faygo bottle away from Gamzee.

"All these games are going to be just an excuse to make-out, aren't they?" I asked.

"Yup, purrty much."

"Can we leave?"

"Fine."

**_A/N: Hey guys~! OwO  
I felt like writing a party chapter, so yeah~ das it. owo I'm /so/ close to eighty followers! QWQ  
Next chapter coming up soon as I can~! Thanks for reading, and follow and/review if you have the time! Until next time, fly on, my young padawans. eue_**

~Raiden 

__


	17. Summer Job

"KK, what the fuck have you been thmoking?" Sollux demanded over the phone.

I laid on my bedroom floor, looking at my TV from almost an upsidedown point of view, as it played the movie 50 First Dates.

I'd seen the movie a thousand times before, and it was basically on to keep me company while I was on my laptop, but then Sollux called me up, so I was now watching it ever so slightly as he blabbed on.

"You're getting lamer and lamer every time we manage to thpeak to each other, firtht, you ditch out on a party, and now you're talking about getting a _job? _ Who are you, and what the fuck have you done with the _real _KK?"

"First of all nimrod, that party was fucking _stupid_ it was just a stupid fucking excuse to make out with random chicks."

"Tho?"

"Tho," I started off the sentence by mocking his lisp.

"That's fucking BS, now shhhh, I'm getting to the good part."

"The good part of wh—"

I covered the speaker of the phone, tuning Sollux out as the characters on the screen kissed for the first time.

"Okay, I'm back." I groaned.

"Finally." Sollux replied, agitated.

"What are you watching anyway, thome unrealithtic movie about love?" He demanded.

"It's not unrealistic, dipshit." I informed.

"Yeah, thure, KK. Love is jutht a walk in the fucking park." He mocked.

"Shut the fuck up." I rolled my eyes before glancing back at the screen.

"Okay, that thit athide, are you therious?" He questioned.

"About the job? Yes." I answered.

"C'mon KK, it's _thummer _for Chritht's thake, you can pick up on a part time job _during _our next themethter."

"Maybe I will, douchebag!" I came back at him with that.

"But I'm _also _taking on this job _now_, Gamzee's foster parents set him and I up with it, and Gamzee would fuck it up without me anyway."

"Tho, you're really gonna uthe Gamzee ath your excuthe?" Sollux asked.

"_Fine, _you know what? I'm doing it so I can make a couple extra fucking bucks to pay for dates, okay?" I informed, clearly annoyed.

"Does it make you happy to hear me admit it, you braindead dickpimple?"

"Yup, it actually doeth, it maketh me right ath uthual." He told me.

"Fuck you." I exclaimed, half assedly, expecting this kind of shit from him.

"Come on, thign onto my minecraft thever, okay? These douthbagth on here are ganging up on me and dethtroying my work."

I rolled my eyes getting out my xbox controller.

"Okay, fine."

. . . .

"Karbro I don't see why you all up and agreed to doing this." Gamzee complained slightly as we walked side by side down the sidewalk.

"If you hadn't motherfucking agreed to doing this with me in the first place, then my parents wouldn't have made me do it, they made it clear that if I couldn't get a friend to do it with me, I'd be home free, man, I was countin' on you to flip 'em off, and say no."

Gamzee obviously didn't want this job, but I didn't give a fuck. What did the lazy stoner have to do all summer anyway? If my taking this job led to his parents making him take it as well, then fuck him, he's was the one being negative.

I _needed _the money.

And we were only going to be working four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and the job paid $8.50 an hour, which wasn't bad, it was better than the job I'd gotten two summers ago when I had needed extra cash.

"Gamzee, we're gonna be working with kids, that seems like it should be right up your fucking ally." I went on.

"Yeah, bro. Kids are like little energetic balls of miracles." He nodded.

"Then what the fuck do you have to complain about?"

"I dunno, man."

We ended the conversation there.

I knew it was just the fact that Gamzee didn't like accepting things from his foster parents, he always did things for them begrudgingly.

Even though this was something they were doing to help him earn some extra money for summer spending, he was still reluctant to do it.

There was a campground in our area not far off from where Gamzee and I lived, we had to take the bus, which dropped us off _near _the campground within walking distance.

It was a pretty large camp, with a huge amount of kids that came each year, and every once in awhile the camp wanted a new perspective.

They accepted older teens to come do an almost camp counselor type job, the kids were divided into different groups of 20 kids at most, and given to the different selected teens and left to do camp activities with during the day.

We had to keep them on schedule, and then with the spare time, with our perspective invent and play the shitty little games that kids play at camp.

Gamzee's foster mom was friends with the owner of the camp, and put in a good word with her, to let Gamzee and I take on guiding one of the groups for the weeks they would be there.

Seeing as this particular crowd of kids were 3-4 graders, this was only a day camp that ran four days a week.

It was the older kids that actually stayed at the camp ground, and that was during days, and different weeks that Gamzee and I weren't in charge of.

So it was a pretty easy job.

I'd even heard that a few other highschoolers from our school had applied for this job.

We'd have a certain group of kids for 3 weeks in a row, and part of it was, at the end of the 3 weeks, all the different groups would come together, being about four groups of roughly 20 kids per group, and by the end of their time, the groups would all go up against each other in a versus capture the flag game.

Two teams would go up against each other and the two winning teams from the groups of four would then proceed to go against each other.

The winning team would get trophies, yadda, yadda, yadda.

All I knew was basically I was getting _paid _to put my leadership skills to the test.

Gamzee and I were already set to be leading the same team, two teens per group was how they ran it, and there was of course camp employees checking up on the teens every once in awhile.

It was a pretty good set-up from what I'd heard, and I would much fucking rather be working with these kids than working some dead-end food job.

"Whoa… best friend, take a look at that." Gamzee exclaimed, pointing at the fancy campground we'd just arrived at.

There were cabins galore, and there were miles of grass, that seemed to go on forever.

A bigger cabin for meetings, and when the kids would get together for lunch and stuff, and a lake.

In the middle of the gravel driveway, I could see the older camp employees greeting the six other teens who had gotten the jobs, most likely laying down the ground rules.

I could see the large group of kids being entertained elsewhere, away from their unannounced camp leaders.

"Nice of the two of you to join us." A woman in her late thirties greeted Gamzee and I as we stopped where the rest of the teens had gathered.

"You're Karkat Vantas and Gamzee Makara, right?"

I nodded, while Gamzee, like a dumbass, gawked at how they already knew our names.

"You can join the others," She said indicating the other six teens.

"We went over the rules already, they'll explain it to you."

The adults left Gamzee and I with the others, and went off to divide the kids into groups of four, and explain the ground rules to _them. _

"Hi Karkat!"

I was surprised to be greeted by name, almost instantly, and then my expectations were shattered when my eyes locked with enthusiastic blue ones, that belonged to none other than one of my classmates, John Egbert.

Of course _he _was one of the teens who applied to work here.

"Whoa man, it's all like… I feel like I've motherfucking seen him before." Gamzee said, sounding puzzled.

"He's goes to school with us, douchefuck." I informed, dully.

"Ohhhh, no _wonder_ he knew your name, I was all like standin' here thinking "man that's some freaky shit, yo"!"

A few of the others that _didn't _go to school with us, were amused by Gamzee's stoner attitude.

John had his best friend Dave with him, a popular boy at our school, a douchey hipster who always wore shades.

"Yo Kitkat, your dye job is lookin' a bit shady, you might wanna think about -re-dying those grey roots of yours before they're more noticeable." Dave informed casually, peeking over his shades to get a better look.

"Shut your fucking mouth you lousy hipster, I don't _dye_ my hair." I replied, hotly.

"Your roots are saying otherwise, dude."

Now self-conscious, I made a mental note to re-dye my hair over the weekend.

"So you and Gamzee are leading a group, Karkat?" John asked.

"You'd better be careful, they made it clear that one of the ground rules was to not swear at the kids."

"I can keep my fucking mouth shut whenever I feel like it, you incompetent fuckbag." I retorted, annoyed.

Dave and the others laughed.

"We'll see about that, dude." Dave shrugged.

"I don't see it happenin'."

My mind was made up right in that moment, that my team of kids was going to be so much more kickass than John and Dave's team.

I was going to make _sure, _that we knocked John Egbert and his hipster friend right on their asses.

_**A/N: I'm so sorry this is so late guys. I had a /horrible/ week that started with last Friday, I've been really gloomy for nearly a week now. ;w;  
Anyways, yeah, that stuff aside, I decided to give Karkat this job, because one, my friend suggested that to me when I felt blocked, and second, because this is all too fitting to Karkat. ^^;; I couldn't think of a better job to give him, he's being /paid/ to be a leader. And since John is there he has some competitive edge.  
Anyway yeah, sorry for the late, and short-ish chapter, from now on, Thursday is my deadline day, so I'll be posting every Thursday at the very latest.  
I made it to 80 followers! Which was my goal, thank you so much! QWQ My new goal is 100! So review and/or follow if you have the time. Thanks so much for reading! **_


	18. You're In The Army

After that meeting with John Egbert and his insufferable prick of a best friend, Dave Strider, we were quickly introduced to the different groups of kids, and separated into the promised teams.  
Gamzee was already fucking slacking off, like I guessed he would, and the kids were running wild, seeing as we had no real activities planned at this point, they were just running about, wild, while, I could see from across the camp ground, John and Dave's team of little booger pickers looked all organized.

It was as if the other two teams of kids didn't exist, I only cared about beating John's team, I didn't give a single fuck about the other loser groups.

Gamzee was sitting in the grass braiding some little girl's hair, like the fucking hippie he was, and the rest of the kids were running amuck like kids on a playground with only fifteen minutes of recess.

"Gamzee!" I nudged him, trying to get his attention.

"Ack—watch out man, you're gonna all up and screw up my braiding skills!" He complained, concentrating on the small girl's hair.

"Gamzee, don't you _think_ we should fucking get these kids in line?"

"Language, bro! Little miracles have _big_ ears."

"Shut up."

"I'm just tryin' to get you to follow the stated rules, best friend."

I rolled my eyes.  
Suddenly Gamzee was pretending to be a saint, and I had no experience with getting kids to shut the fuck up and listen to me, whatsoever.

"All _right! _Everyone, shut up!" I called over the sound of all the shouting.

With that interruption all the kids froze and looked at me.

"Everyone, line up." I ordered, in a subtle way, trying to sound like I knew what I was doing.

Gamzee finished the little girl's braid off, and pushed her forward, telling her to get in line with the others.

Gamzee came up to where I was standing, and sat down on the ground cross legged beside me, looking all chill, even as I forced the kids to line up like they were in the army.

"Okay, you lousy fuckers, this is how it's gonna be—"

A kid his raised his hand.

"What?" I asked, pointing at him, reluctant to letting a kid interrupt me.

"Ms. Patricks' doesn't let the consolers swear at us." He informed.

What a kringlefucking douche bag of a kid.

Who the fuck did he think he was, trying to correct me?

There was silence for a moment, as the kids looked dumbstruck that their little smartass friend corrected a counselor.

"What's your name?" I demanded.

"Adam…" He said, quietly.

"Well, _Adam,_ let me tell you something!" I started.

"Your precious "Ms. Patricks'" isn't in charge of you any longer, and you know who is? Obviously, I am, and then there's this douche bag." I informed, pointing at Gamzee.

"Now, he, acts like a loser, and a slacker, and he is usually stoned, but you know what? He has authority over this goddamn group, more so than you, kid. So if he asks you to do something, you _do it._ And if you don't listen, you'll have to answer to me. So, let me start my sentence again, only this time. You shut the fuck up."

The kid gawked at me, completely dumbfounded, it was obvious no one had ever talked to him like that before.

After a moment of looking shocked, he grumbled something begrudgingly and got back in line with the other kids.

Once everything was back in order, I nodded, walking up and down the line of kids, as if I was some sort of general and they were cadets.

"All right, you lousy fuckers." I started again.

"This is how it's going to be, you, are all soldiers, and _I _am the motherfucking general, or—whatever the fuck I would be in army terms. Yes, we're going to have fun, and play your dumb shitty camp games. You know why? Because if I don't let you play your dumbass games people are bound to find out, and I won't get paid. That aside, while we're _not _playing, we will be readying ourselves. Who knows what we're readying ourselves for?"

Gamzee raised his hand.

"Not you, Gamzee. The _kids." _

He looked disappointed, but he put his hand down.

A few kids raised their hands, but I ended up pointed at the little girl that Gamzee had braided the hair of.

"We'll be training for the capture the flag game, right?" She asked, happily, knowing that was the answer.

"Precisely." I nodded.

"And I don't care, if you have friends on the other teams, while you're on campground, _and _while you're off, until the end of these three weeks, you all are _enemies. _You do not associate with them under any circumstances, and if you find yourself in a situation in which you are _forced _to, you will not give up anything having to do with our plans for the capture the flag games. Do I make myself clear?"

They all nodded.

"No, no, no! What did I tell you all, you're in the fucking _army." _

I put my hand up on my forehead, quickly demonstrating a salute.

"Now I need you all to do that, and say "yes, sir", got it?"

Within three seconds, they were all saluting me and chanting those words.

I could tell in that moment that this wasn't going to be the _worst _job ever.

. . . .

"And so they were all purrfectly fine being bossed around like that?" Nepeta giggled a little over the phone.

I sitting on my bedroom floor, scrolling through the romcom section of Netflix, seeing if there was anything that I hadn't seen yet that was worth watching, while holding my phone to my left ear, blabbing on about my first day of work to Nepeta.

"Of course, the putrid little bastards had no choice but to see me as their leader, you can't be respected as a leader if you don't _act _like one, you know?"

"Karkitty, you're so silly, sometimes." She sighed.

"Silly? I'm dead fucking serious." I informed.

"I know." She laughed.

"That's why it's silly, you're always so pawsitively serious."

"Is that a bad thing in your eyes?"

"No, it's adorable." She laughed.

"I just don't think it would hurt for mew to loosen up just a bit."

"Loosen up, how?" I asked.

"They have Gamzee for all the chill shit."

I ended up clicking on a movie I'd already seen a billion times before, and pausing it, so that I could watch it later, after Nepeta and I hung up for the night.

"I'm not sure, really." She shrugged.

"Mew are really good at giving advice when you're asked to, I was just thinking that, maybe, you could keep your strict act, but then _also, _help the kids if they need it."

"And show weakness? No fucking way." I stuck to my guns.

"Gamzee is the hippie, hair braiding, loser who succumbs to anything the kids ask, and _I'm _the hardass. We have jobs, _Nepeta."_

"All righty, Karkitty, if mew are completely pawsitive, then you stick with what mew know."

I nodded.

"Yup, I will."

"So after work tomorrow," Nepeta started.

"I was thinking mew and I could meet up? We can play video games at my house or something?" She proposed, hopefully.

"Sure, sounds refreshing, after two days with Gamzee and the douchey group of kids."

"Okay!" She exclaimed.

"Text me after work?"

"For sure, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okay, good night, Karkitty."

With that, she hung up, and I set my phone down, clicking play on my movie.  
Though, I didn't pay much attention to it.

It was a pretty weird experience, feeling like my real life was better than the romcom that was playing on my screen.

_****_

A/N: Aaaand, I'm back, on Thursday, as promised~! Thank you for all your support, though, I was only able to come up with this short chapter. It will be better in the future, don't worry!  
Anyways, I don't have much to say this time around. Thanks for reading, follow and/or review if you can!  
I'm off for now!

~Raiden 

__


	19. Putting A Damper On Their Friendship

"Karkat, bro, calm down." Gamzee soothed as the two of us walked into the main meeting area on the camp ground.  
This was the area where all the teams regrouped and had lunch together, along with their teenage counselors, _and _official adult staff members.

"You just gotta take a deep breath, and all up and motherfucking chill, okay?"

Our group of kids had already run off to get in line for the provided camp lunches, while I stood in the doorway, frozen, as Gamzee tried to talk me out of turning around and eating outside away from all these fucking kids.

"All right, man. I'm not just gonna motherfucking stand here with you all day." He started shrugging me off, and he was about to walk away to get a table, I grabbed hold of his arm quickly, still keeping the rest of myself still as a statue.

"Karbro, wha—"

"Shut the fuck up and stay still, Gamzee. Maybe it'll go _away." _I said, under my breath.

"What's that, best friend? I can't really hear ya when you're talking so quietly, it's hard to hear ya over all the motherfucking talking."

"I _said _stay fucking _still, _you incompetent douchelick, if we stay _still, _maybe it will go _away!" _I repeated myself in a more harsh manner, only this time, I said it loud enough for others to hear.

That, I realized, not three seconds afterwards, was a mistake, that attracted the very thing I was trying to avoid.

"Yo, Kitkat." The insufferable prick exclaimed, noticing me.

"Sup with your paranoid act? You think you're too high and mighty to sit at the table with the rest of the counselors?"

"Strider has a point, bro. You _are _acting high and mighty." Gamzee nodded in agreement with the shaded lunatic.

I didn't want to sit with Egbert, Strider, and the rest of them, it would be a _horrifying _experience.  
I'd get asked things like "how is your summer going?" and "do you have plans, thus far?"

Well, how do you _think _my summer is going fucktard? I'm sitting here at a cheery fucking camp table with all _you _fuckers!  
Tiny minded dickweeds…

What sort of plans do you think I fucking have? I'm working _here _four days a week!

"Come on, best friend, don't be so stuck up."

With those words, Gamzee grabbed me by the wrist, and dragged me to the table where the other six counselors were sitting.

Egbert and his douche friend included.

It wasn't that I hated the job, it was my second day working here, and I absolutely loved the leader-ly feeling that washed over me when I got to boss around the kids, and play camp games with them, but… being social with the others that were my own age, that part really pissed me off.

For years and years of school, I hung out with a select group of kids who became my friends.

Gamzee and Sollux of course, with the exception of Eridan Ampora, and back in the old days in middle school, Terezi would sit at our table as well.

Them, and of course, Nepeta, though she was a newer edition to our group, they were the only people I could fucking _stand. _

Sure, I could exchange words with Tavros every once in awhile, and _sometimes _Vriska wasn't fucking awful, but that was _it _that was as far as I went.

Being forced to be pleasant in the company of douche bags I didn't care for, was absolute torture.

"Hey Karkat, I thought you were about to run out on us for a second there." Dave went on, as Gamzee and I got to the table.

"Shut the fuck up, Strider. I've had enough of your douchey hipster attitude." I reply, half assedly.

The other four losers that _weren't _Egbert or Strider, looked completely shocked that I would talk to Strider that way, _they _hadn't been going to school with me for longer than I could remember.

"Hi Karkat!" John greeted me, cheerfully.

He extended his hand to me, as something to add onto his greeting, but I shrugged him off.

I hadn't shook his hand, since 5th grade, when the loser used one of those buttons that shock you when you shake hands with the person holding it.

The insipid loser was nothing but a clusterfuck of trouble for me.

The douche actually _believed _he was funny, with all his half assed pranks, and the fact that he was so fucking cheerful all the time really added to my hatred of him.

"What's the matter, Karkat?" Dave teased.

"_Still _worried he's gonna shock you?"

Gamzee laughed a little until I glared at him, which made him stop instantly.

'

"What?" Gamzee looked disappointed.

"You have to admit, it was funny."

I continued to glare at my stoner of a best friend, until he backed down from the topic.

I took out my lunch, trying to eat in silence, ignoring the conversation that Dave, John, and Gamzee eventually went into.

_Just remember, Karkat. _I thought to myself, trying to tune out all the laughing, and pleasant conversation.

_After work, you're hanging out with Nepeta. No more Gamzee, no more insufferable hipster douche bags, no more overly cheerful unattractive whimsical prankers, just you, and Nepeta. Just ignore it, if they talk to you, ignore them, just ignore the—_

"What do you think, Karkat?" Egbert's question interrupted my thoughts, and forced me into the conversation.

Fuck.  
My ignore strategy's never fucking worked out as planned.

"…Huh?" I asked, a little out of the loop, seeing as the only part of the conversation I heard was the part when John tried to drag me into it, asking for my opinion.

"Wow, dude. You must really fucking hate us, tuning us out until this moment, what's this about?" Dave asked, but I could tell there was going to be a punchline to this seemingly serious question.

"Is it about your fifth grade shipping grid? Are you pissed that John and I aren't married to Jade and Rose?"

Gamzee laughed a little, as if he had a fucking clue what was going on, and the rest of the table looked up interested, wanting to know what the story of my shipping grid was about, and I could feel my face heating up, as Strider told the story of how in the 5th grade, I slammed a shipping grid in the middle of John and Dave's table, blabbing on about how Dave should be with Jade, and John should be with Rose, and the compatibility of the ships.

As Dave told the story, most everyone at the table turned to me, looking at me, in awe, as if to say that I didn't seem like the kind of person who'd be into the whole shipping scene.

I wasn't aware that Strider had remembered that story so clearly, the only one who blackmailed me with that was usually Sollux.

"Whoa, Karkat, is that _really _why you're so mad at us all the time? Because we didn't follow your shipping grid?" John asked, confused.

I instantly found a way to double back and turn the conversation to someone else.

"Maybe _you _didn't follow my grid, nimrod, but I can remember hearing news around the school of Strider hooking up with none other than your sister, Jade. So I was fucking _right _there." I smirked, as I knew this was the first John was hearing of this.

Dave shook his head at me, moving his hands around, trying to get me to shut up, the entire time I was speaking that sentence.

"Wait, that's not true, Dave and Jade aren't dating!" Egbert laughed a little, as he was clearly clueless.

It slowly dawned on him, and he turned around, staring at Dave.

"_Wait."_

"Wait, wait, wait! Dave, what the hell? Are you dating my _sister? _"

The answer was clear on Strider's face, as it was heating up, showing the fact that he was obviously flustered by the question.

"What? _No! _The dudes crazy! He's clearly delusional about his piss poor shipping choices." He quickly answered, talking way too fast, and sounding way too nervous for him to be telling the truth.

"Daaave! You're lying aren't you?"

"Nah, man! You're crazy, I'm _not _into Jade!"

I nodded, leaving the table, seeing that my work there was officially done.

. . . .

"Wait, so you're pawsitive?" Nepeta asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Dave x Jade is _really _canon~?"

"Well, it was just a fucking guess, but the way Strider lit up like a repulsive tomato really sold my assumption."

She laughed a little at this, as she locked her arm around mine as we walked down the sidewalk together.

I'd gotten right on the bus after work that day, and she'd been waiting at the bus stop. We'd gone back to her place, and played the promised video games on her xbox, hours had passed, and I had to get home, and she had decided to tag along back to my house, just to see me for awhile longer.

"I've officially put a damper on Strider and Egbert's relationship for the time being, hopefully that fucking means they're training the kids for the games will be slowed down and a lot less fucking organized." I said, obviously smug with what I'd done.

"Was that your plan from the furry beginning?" She gawked.

"Well, maybe not that exactly, but I knew I wanted to put a damper on their friendship _somehow, _I just saw an opening."

She shook her head.

"Karkitty, you're so devious sometimes!" She said, half scolding.

"Hey, they'll work it out! But until they do, I'm planning on getting my team as ahead of the game as they can be." I informed.

"And do you know why?"

"Well…um—"

"Because _I'm the leader, _that's why. And not only the leader, but I'm going to be the fucking _winner _of that capture the flag game, those brainless shitrods will just have to fucking _deal with it." _

"Wow, it must be your sensitivity towards others that makes you so incredibly attractive to others." She said, a smile on her face, but her voice full of sarcasm.

"Shut the fuck up, you know you fucking _love _my "sensitivity"." I said, stopping outside my doorway, and turning to her, a smile tugging at the end of my lips, as I put the obvious quotation on the word sensitivity.

"I do." She informed, seriously, before she leaned over and quickly pecked me on the lips, leaving for speechless, and flustered.

"Good night, Karkitty."

_**A/N: Well, would you look at that? Another finished chapter~! Delivered straight to you guys on Thursday, as always. I hope you liked this chapter! I'm actually pretty happy with it this time around. I'm getting /pretty/ close to my goal of 100 followers, the day I get that... /if/ it happens, that would just be... I'd be so happy. ^^;; Welp! Until next time, guys. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this story! Follow and/or review if you have the time!**_

Peace! OwO 


	20. No Clue

It was Friday, we'd gotten through the first week of our job, just fine. We hadn't gotten reported for swearing, and the kids weren't being resistant to following orders anymore. We had two weeks left with the kids, meaning, starting Monday, we were going to have to start going over our game plan for the capture the flag game at the end of our third week.

I was at home, my dad hadn't come home from work, and he most likely wouldn't _be_ home at all until Saturday night.

It was fine by me, most of my childhood my dad hadn't been home, so I didn't see any point of him trying to be a parent now.

Most days Kankri had been the one to meet me back at home after school.

He was bossy, and wouldn't let me watch TV until my homework was done.  
And just _saying_ it was done was never enough, he had to _check _it, to make sure I wasn't lying, and if it was in fact done, he always checked my answers, and corrected them if they were wrong.

It was because of him I got a head start on good grades.  
Anything I didn't understand, he explained.

He had explained it in the most long drawn out, annoying way possible, but at least at the end of all of it, I usually had a moment of clarity, and that made it all that much easier.

Kankri…

A few weeks of summer vacation had already passed, and I'd gotten _no _word from him.

I knew we weren't talking, and that I had started it, but I couldn't help but wonder where he was stashing himself.

He hadn't come home from college so where had he been all these weeks?

I started scrolling through my contacts.

I hovered over his name for a moment, contemplating what the fuck I'd even say if he picked up the phone.

Then I just closed my phone, remembering… that he'd fucking _left. _

He'd voluntarily walked out on us.

Sure, it was only logical to want to walk out on our dead beat dad, but he had seemed to forget that walking out on him, meant walking out on me too.

And I didn't take that shit lightly.

I didn't take fucking well, to being abandoned by my own older brother.

He thought we were just going to continue talking over the phone, like nothing had happened between us?  
Like what he did was okay?

I fucking _hated _the douche, and for the first semester of college he hadn't seemed to understand that.

He'd call me, every few days, if not every day, to check on me, to make goddamn small talk with me, asking about dad, and school, and all that bullshit.

I always talked to him begrudgingly, and even sometimes told him how I felt about the whole thing, how it pissed me off that he walked out on me, and all he could do was apologize.

And no matter how many times I heard the words "Sorry, Karkat"  
It never felt good enough.  
I could tell he wasn't sorry.

He was sorry I _felt _that way, but not sorry he left me.

His first summer vacation, he came home like a normal person, and seemingly to his surprise, he got nothing from me.

He tried to ask me why I was acting like a total prick, (not his words, of course, putting it that way would have been "incredibly triggering")

And I told him exactly why.  
How I felt about him leaving, how I was holding a grudge, how I didn't think it was okay.

And after a long talk, that involved a lot of shouting on my end, he finally seemed to understand.

And after that, I never got a phone call from him, I never got jack fucking squat from him.

…And for some reason, I was glad.

It'd been two years, and I hadn't gotten a single call, and he never even attempted to come home.

And every once in awhile, though I refused to admit it out loud, I fucking missed him.  
I had felt like I'd lost a brother when he first walked out that door, but now, not having spoken to him in two fucking years… it felt worse, when I actually took the time to think about it, I felt guilty, and I contemplated calling him up.

But that always ended where I was at the moment.  
It always ended with me shutting my phone, and recalling to myself why we'd stopped talking in the first place.

My phone rang, startling me out of my thoughts, and I cursed under my breath as I opened the phone, quickly glancing at the caller ID, only to see it was Sollux.

I rolled my eyes, as I wasn't in the mood to deal with his pompous bullshit. He more than likely wanted me to sign onto my xbox live profile, and play some shitty game with him.

_"What?" _I answered the phone, making it clear that I was annoyed.

Maybe if he heard my agitated nature at the moment, he'd just go the fuck away.

"Thup duthbag?" He asked, casually.

"_You're _the douchebag, you pungent shitwad." I replied, just as casual.

Gamzee usually gave me a hurt look or said "you don't gotta be like that, best friend" whenever I called him a name.  
Sollux was one of the only people I could exchange insults with, well, I mean the only one who didn't act all hurt like a whiny bitch when I called them a name.

He just retorted with his own insult.

In fact it had become a habit of his to just casually call me "asshole" or "douchebag" it wasn't uncommon, even in school, in front of classmates.

"Whoa lookth like you're not taking thit from me today, thomthing on your mind?" He laughed a little.

I sighed, aggravated by the entire existence of the conversation.

"How the fuck can you be such a doltish fuckbag?" I grumbled.

"Ha, well excuthe _m_e, you repulsive pustulefuck. What the fuck got thtuck up your ath, _today?" _

I leaned back on the couch, realizing that this conversation was going to drag out longer than I wanted it to.  
I just accepted it.

"Nothing, nothing." I grumbled.

"Just life. What the fuck do you want?" I asked.

There was a pause before Sollux opened his mouth again.

"Tho, you're free from your heinouth job thith weekend, right?" He demanded.

"Yes, dickwad. I only work 4 fucking days a week." I informed.

"Great, tho, tomorrow…"

Oh my god, there it fucking was.  
What the fuck did he want me to be doing tomorrow?

"FF and I are going out tomorrow, and I wath thinking, that maybe you and Nepeta could tag along...like, a double date, or something like that."

Okay, okay, okay.

_Now, _the douche was dating Feferi?  
What about all that shit he had confessed to me about Eridan weeks before? Was he totally going back on what he said?

"Okay, you vacuous fucklick, jigs up. What the hell is going on with you?" I demanded.

"What do you mean…?" He demanded, slowly.

"What you told me on the beach, fucktard. That was the most real thing you've said to me in a year, and now suddenly, you're going back on it. Pretending like you never fucking said it. What about _Ampora?_ You like him, and you're going to fucking hurt him going out with his ex best friend like this. What the fuck, man?"

Silence.

I got nothing but silence over the line for a few minutes.

"Not only that," I continued.

"But you're going to hurt Feferi, too. It fucking hurts to be the rebound, Sollux. Fucking _stings. _You really wanna lead her on like this?"

More silence, for a few seconds, before he finally spoke up.

"Look, man. The's not my rebound, I really like her." He informed.

"Okay, one fucking sloppy makeout in a closet with her, and you all of a sudden drop your _real _crush, and start going out with her? Bullshit, it's sounds like a rebound hook-up." I told him, getting more and more annoyed with him.

"Thut the fuck up for a second, KK." He said, sounding just as annoyed with me, as I was with him.

"We didn't make out in that clothet, okay? We just talked… we had a fucking converthation. She really liketh me, man. And… why the fuck thhouldn't I like her back? the's a cute girl, and I have nothing left to fucking lothe, so why not? Why the hell not?"

I shook my head. There was no point in arguing with him, I had no place telling him who he could and couldn't date.

And getting out the house didn't sound too bad, so why not?

"Okay, you've convinced me." I sighed.

"I'll find out what Nepeta has going on, and you can text me the details later."

"Thankth, man." He said, sounding genuinely thankful.

"I owe you one."

"Yup. Later, loser."

I hung up the phone at that.

You know, whatever.  
Who the hell was I, trying to force Sollux into dating Ampora.

Truth was, I just didn't even fucking know anymore.  
I didn't know what to think about my own older brother, and I didn't know what was going on with my friend.

I had no place making an argument about something I had no fucking clue about.

_**A/N: Look who's back~! OwO I had a hard time writing this today. ^^;; Procrastination and I talk on a daily basis. I actually meant to get this done ahead of time, but here I am writing it on it's due day, like I always do. Hehehe~ I'm going to six flags with my best friend on Sunday. Fright fest. Yisssss~ so I'm all excited!  
Anyway, enough about me. Thanks for reading, and all that stuffs. OwO Review and/or follow if you have the time. I'm sooo close to my goal!  
Later, guys.**_

Raiden 


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